Canon in G
by Sana Jisushi
Summary: Genderswap AU. Aizawa Yuuko moves to a new town and uncovers not only her memories and her newfound friends' problems, but more about the nature of this and every variation. Because, of course, even if they tell the same story, not every world is the same... Includes the "variation/parallel world" setup from CLANNAD.
1. First Remembrance

_A dream… Life is a dream._

_Not literally. Probably not, anyway. I've learned by now not to make assumptions about reality, because they'll probably come back and bite me. It's just that it doesn't make as much sense as it likes to pretend it does, and there isn't just one way it can go. This world has so many variations, they start to blur together. Worlds where his condition gets worse, so he gets sick and dies. Worlds where we never meet. Worlds where we do, but it never leads to anything. Worlds where I'm the one who gets sick and dies. Lots of worlds where I'm a guy. I can never get used to those._

_The thing that keeps me going? I screwed up once. I'm not going to do it again. It's the same for a friend of mine, too…_

_It was 1999, in a town I hadn't been to in a very long time._

Moving to a new town, one expects a few things. The moving boxes arriving at the right destination, for example. Her uncle had already called and said they'd arrived, so that was taken care of. Getting off at the right train station was another example, and she checked that ten times. Indeed, here she was, at the right train station. It had the right number and the town's name and that big clock on a lamppost that she was supposed to look for and everything. Well, everything but the thing she'd been most assured of, and that was somebody coming to pick her up.

The train station was nearly empty by now and the clouds above only got thicker and seemed to yield more snow. She shivered and hugged herself tightly, clutching the sides of her baggy green coat. With a groan, she looked up at the clock again. _Two hours? Come on, Yuki. I blame you if I get frostbite._

"There's snow on you."

She jumped in her seat on the bench. The voice belonged to a guy in a long tan coat, probably a little younger than her if that, with a red bandana tied around his head like a headband with the ends tucked under the knot. He was looking at her curiously, sitting beside her on the bench. She shuffled away a couple of centimeters.

"There is," he repeated.

She sighed. "Obviously, there's snow on me. It's snowing."

He scratched his head without taking his hand out of his snowflake-caked mitten. "But it's piled up on your head and all over you."

She grimaced and tried to brush most of it off the top of her head, succeeding in part but mostly just spreading snowflakes through her long hair. She shivered again, brushing the snow off her coat and legs, and then rubbed her now red and wet hands.

"That would be because I've been here for the past two hours," she said. She carefully eyed him, making note of his confused look. _I've seen enough TV dramas to know where this is going. High school girl in a strange town with no one she knows anywhere near the train station talks to some weird guy and ends up dead in a ditch. Then the rest of the show is dedicated to the cops figuring out just how mutilated her body ended up. In fact, I'm probably out of my mind for acknowledging this guy._

"I lost something," he said. "Have you seen it?"

"No," she sighed. "I just said I'd been sitting on this bench for three hours, and before that I was on the train to come here. Where would I have seen whatever you lost?"

"Uguu…" His shoulders slumped. "But you don't even know what it is."

"Well," she said, "if you'd tell me, maybe I'd know."

"…But I can't remember what it is either."

She groaned. "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"You can't remember."

"Not at all."

"But you know you lost it."

"And it's really important that I find it!"

She had to resist the urge to facepalm. "Maybe you should think about that first."

He frowned. "Uguu…"

_Correction: This guy's as much of a serial killer as a beached goldfish._ She sighed and leaned back on the bench, immediately sitting back up again and brushing off the snow that was now caked onto her back. "I hate the snow."

"My lost item…"

She looked over at the strange boy again. "Look, you won't find it like this. Rest for now and check the Lost & Found later." Another glance at the clock. "And go eat, if you haven't. It's three o'clock."

"Okay." He pouted like a little kid and got up from the bench. "If you find it, tell me, okay?"

"Didn't I just say…" She shook her head and sighed, getting up too. "Okay, sure. If I ever see you again, I'll tell you if I found it."

"Thank you!"

Satisfied, he ran off. She shook her head and started to try and pick the clumping snowflakes out of her hair again.

"You're covered in snow."

"Again? I know that-" She turned around and stared for a moment. In front of her now was a taller boy with straight blue hair down to just above his shoulders. He tilted his head at her before nodding firmly.

"It is you, isn't it?"

"It depends." She raised an eyebrow. "What's my name?"

"Yuuko," he said.

She nodded. "That's me. Aizawa Yuuko. What took you?"

"Has it been that long?" He blinked slowly. "What time is it?"

Again? "Three o'clock. It's a wonder I'm not buried up to my neck in snow."

"Ah! Sorry." He gave a nervous smile. "Are you cold?"

"What do you think?"

"I'm sorry for that, too. It isn't far to the house, though, just a bus ride and a couple of blocks, so you could have…" He trailed off.

Yuuko shivered. "Do you think I know the way around here? I haven't been here in seven years."

Pause. "Oh… right. I guess the town has changed."

"Even if it had stayed the same, I probably wouldn't remember it."

He looked off. "You remember me, right?"

She hesitated and studied his soft hair with the peaks that looked like an animal's ears, his light blue eyes, his slow and sleepy voice. The words started to fill her mind, not unlike, she thought, the snow covering the ground.

"Of course I know who you are. You're my cousin. Minase Yuki. I waited in the snow for you for two hours. I wouldn't brave frostbite for just anyone."

Was that a sigh of relief? It was practically undetectable either way. Yuki looked back at her.

"Yes, you would," he said. "But do you remember me?"

Yuuko hugged herself for warmth. "To tell you the truth, I don't remember much of anything that happened here. I mean, I was just nine."

Yuki paused. "…That's okay. It just means that I'll have to help you remember!" He gestured to the path. "Come on, let's go home before we get too cold."

_Before _you_ get too cold, you mean,_ Yuuko thought. _I've been too cold since I stepped out here. Another five minutes and I'd probably die of exposure._ She looked at him, though, and decided against commenting.

"Heh. All right. Let's go, Yuki."

* * *

At the edge of town, an orange fox cautiously nosed at the lunch box sitting in front of it. About a meter back, two older boys stood watching it, one with soft, short dust-coloured hair and a warm winter coat on, the other with dark hair in a small ponytail with a stoic expression. The fox gleefully leapt at the lunch box to devour its contents.

"Ahaha, it's eating, Mahiro!" The first boy smiled, gesturing to the second, who watched it intently. "It looks happy, don't you think?"

"…Yes." Mahiro nodded slowly. "It's a wild animal, but it seems to be used to humans."

"You're always so kind, Mahiro," the other one continued, resting a hand on his shoulder. "You feed the animals when they come by, and you gave that girl at the bus stop your coat because it was cold, too."

Mahiro watched the fox eat with a little smile. "You're the one who's kind, Satoru."

"Ahaha..." Satoru rubbed the back of his head.

"Excuse me!"

The two of them turned to see the same boy with the red bandana. He fiddled with the strap of his backpack and looked up at them from where he stood, about a head shorter.

"Have either of you seen a..." He thought hard and shook his head in frustration. "Have you seen anything strange that looked lost? I lost something and I can't find it."

"Satoru is sorry, but he hasn't seen anything out of the ordinary," Satoru said. "Have you, Mahiro?"

Mahiro studied the shorter boy before answering. "...No."

"Uguu." He bowed. "Thank you anyway! I'm going to look somewhere else!" He ran off, the wing patches sewn onto his backpack becoming clearer as the snow shook off.

When the two of them looked back, the fox was already running away from the lunch box.

* * *

"Welcome back! I'm glad you two are all right. I was starting to worry."

Yuuko had no idea what to expect of Minase Akio. He was her mother's younger brother, she knew that much, and she'd come to visit a lot as a kid and stayed at his house for a month or two seven years back. At least, her family kept reminding her of that, and she knew it must have happened. Unfortunately, that didn't mean she knew a thing about the smiling man at the gate of the house Yuki had enthusiastically led her to.

"It's my fault, Dad," Yuki said. "I got caught up with track team things at the school, and then I was talking to Kaoru, and I completely lost track of the time."

Akio smiled. "Well, as long as you're both all right. Come in and warm up. You must be Yuuko, right? I haven't seen you in a long time."

"Yeah, it's been a while," Yuuko said, pulling her feet out of her boots at the door. "Nice to meet you again, Akio-san. I hope you're doing okay."

"Very well," he said with a smile. "Have you eaten lunch?"

She sighed. "Not exactly. By which I mean, no, just a canned coffee from the vending machine after the first fifteen minutes outside."

"Oh!" Akio gestured towards the kitchen. "Don't worry, lunch is just about ready. You always liked my grilled fish, right?"

"Dad's cooking is really good. You'll love it," Yuki offered with a smile.

"I'll trust you on that. To be honest, I don't remember a lot." Yuuko shrugged her shoulders at Akio. "Don't worry, Akio-san. Yuki's already volunteered himself to help me out with that." Yuki turned bright red, and Yuuko bit back a burst of laughter.

"Oh? I'm glad it's going well for you already." Akio stepped back. He looked a lot like Yuki, mused Yuuko. His hair was shorter, aside from those same long bits in the front that peaked at the top like animal ears, but it was the same colour and he had the same helpful smile. "Your things are in the first guest room upstairs. It's down the hall from Yuki's room. You can show her, right, Yuki?"

"Right!" Yuki already had his shoes off and slippers on, and he gestured for Yuuko to follow him up the stairs. "Thanks a lot, Dad! We'll be down right away for lunch!"

"Thank you, Akio-san," Yuuko echoed. She bowed and followed Yuki up the stairs.

Yuki bounded up, checking every few steps for Yuuko behind him. "I can't wait to show you around town! There are so many great things we can do. We can go up to Monomi Hill, look around the shopping district, I can show you the school..."

"Can I defrost first?" Yuuko sighed as they got up the stairs. "We can do all that stuff tomorrow."

"Oh..." Yuki lightly hit himself on the head. "Of course! Anyway, here's my room." He pointed to a door marked by a large sign, shaped by a frog, reading YUKI'S ROOM in block letters. "And your room is down the hall, where all the boxes are." Yuuko looked over to see the next door over ajar, propped open with moving boxes with the cutesy moving company logo on them.

"I figured. Thanks," she said. "I'm just going in there to look around, okay? Then I'll be down for lunch. You can go back down without me."

"Okay..." Yuki nodded. "I really hope you like it here, Yuuko!"

"I hope so too," she said. "After all, I'll be here through the rest of high school. Thanks." Yuuko walked past with a smile and stepped through the door. She navigated through the scattered towers of moving boxes to the bed and flopped over on it. Sigh.

"So this is the place, huh..."

She looked to the side. Beside her on the bed was a large stuffed poly envelope. She pushed herself up to sit and pulled the bag onto her lap. _Addressed to me from… the school, I guess. Must be the uniform._She recalled the blue suit jacket and grey plaid pants Yuki had on when he finally picked her up. Whatever was in here probably matched that. With a shrug, Yuuko tore open the flap of the envelope and pulled out the folded-up clothing.

She unrolled the red minidress and accompanying folded-up cape. What followed were at least a few minutes of staring, or at least enough to only be shaken out of her disbelief by Akio calling her for lunch.

"…I'm going to freeze to death."

* * *

The next day, sure enough, Yuki remembered to take her out as soon as he got back from practice and changed into normal clothes. Akio had asked them to get groceries, but Yuki was sure he'd be able to fit that in there, too. They were currently walking down the street, Yuki excitedly pointing things out.

"See, there's another box of sand," he said. "Don't mix those up with garbage cans or people will yell at you! These are for getting rid of the ice on the sidewalk after shovelling."

"I guess it's a big problem here," Yuuko said. "Thanks for bailing me out of more snow shovelling in front of the house, speaking of. You couldn't have come back at a better time. I've never seen that much snow in my life."

"Yes, you have," Yuki said. "You used to come here all the time."

"Okay, correction: that I can remember." Yuuko sighed. "This is going to get to be a problem."

Yuki pumped his fists a little. "Don't worry, I promised I would help you remember! 'Fight!' Right?"

"I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be fighting." She shook her head. "Thanks, though. Is there a vending machine around here?"

"Oh!" Yuki pointed and they walked more briskly down the road to a selection of them. "Here. What did you want?"

"Canned coffee, if they have it," Yuuko said, already reaching into her simple purse. She looked up, and Yuki was already putting the coins into the machine and pressing the order buttons. "Wait, what?"

"It's my treat," he smiled, reaching in for the hot can with his gloved hand and handing it to her. She took it in her own icy cold hands, feeling it warm her fingertips that were pink from the cold. He put back his wallet and put on the other mitten again. "Celebrating you coming back to town!"

"Thanks a lot, Yuki," she said, and popped open the can. "I mean it. Although is a reunion after seven years really worth just a can of coffee?"

"I guess not…" His shoulders slumped. "It's really been that long, hasn't it?"

"Don't worry about it, Yuki." Yuuko laughed nervously and took a sip from the can. "I really do appreciate it. Besides, you went out of your way to come show me around even when you just got home from track."

He brightened up again. "I want to help you get familiar with this place as soon as possible! You're going to be here from now on, after all. It's good to—"

"Yuki! Hey, Yuki!"

The two of them turned to see two people their age running toward them. One was a wavy-haired boy in a tan jacket with a furry collar carrying a few bags in one hand and waving with the other as he stopped in front of them. Following him was a girl with gold eyes and gold hair in twintails with a piece of hair sticking up at the top of her head, carrying about twice as many bags.

"I knew it was you, Yuki." The new boy gave a wide smile. "So you're out shopping, too?"

"Are these two friends of yours?" Yuuko asked.

"Kaoru here is one of my best friends," Yuki said. "He and Kitagawa are in our class, so you're going to be seeing a lot of them!"

"Aha, so _you're_Kaoru." Yuuko rubbed her chin like she was pretending to be a detective. "When Yuki mentioned you yesterday, I thought he blew me off for his girlfriend."

"I didn't blow her off!" Yuki interjected.

Kaoru shook his head. "You're Aizawa Yuuko-san, Yuki's cousin, aren't you? I've heard a lot about you. My name is Misaka Kaoru. Like Yuki said, we're going to be classmates."

The girl with him gave the thumbs up whilst carrying a handful of grocery bags. "And I'm Kitagawa Junri! I'm on the student council, so if you ever need anything, ask me! Kaoru and I went out shopping, and—"

"You're saying it like we're out on a date," Kaoru snarked. "We just ran into each other a minute ago."

Junri's face fell. "It's more than that! I offered to carry your stuff and everything…"

Yuuko raised her eyebrow. "Don't be so hard on her, Misaka. Speaking as the complete stranger you're so worried will get the wrong impression, all I'm seeing from Kitagawa is less 'girlfriend' and more 'servant'."

Junri flapped her arms, the contents of the bags shifting and clanking around. "I'm closer to a girlfriend than a servant, thank you very much!"

"Don't worry, you can just call me Kaoru. Calling me 'Misaka' just sounds weird. I'll call you 'Yuuko' if it feels more equal that way." Kaoru shot a look at his companion. "Watch it! You're going to make the cans either explode or go flat."

Junri's arms dropped to their sides, and Kaoru reached into one of the grocery bags she was holding and pulled out two pop cans. He offered them up to Yuki and Yuuko. "Here, to celebrate you moving in."

Junri sulked. "Those were for us…"

"No thanks, Kaoru," Yuuko said. "I've already got my can of coffee." _Is this common?_, she thought. _At this rate, I'm surprised that weird guy at the station didn't get me a can of whatever too._

"Well, that's fine." He put one back and gave the other to Yuki. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow at school, okay?"

"All right!" Yuki smiled and waved. "See you too, Kaoru!"

Junri leaned in closer to Yuuko. "You'd better stay away from Kaoru, okay? Don't say I'm not watching you!"

"Well, you're definitely not watching him." Yuuko indicated Kaoru walking away. He was already halfway down the block.

"Ah!" She stood up straight, pigtails bouncing, and ran off down the street with the shopping bags. "Kaoru! Kaoru, wait up! What about your groceries?"

Yuuko shook her head as she watched her run off. "Yuki, you have interesting friends. Speaking of groceries, weren't we supposed to go get them?"

Yuki's eyes widened. "Oh, right! We're right by the store. Let's go. It's Cosmos Grocery, just down the street—"

* * *

Down the street, in an alley, a figure could barely be seen nodding and walking off in the other direction.

* * *

"Out of the way!"

What happened next was a blur to Yuuko. When she thought back on it later, she was able to piece it together mostly based on logic the vague memories didn't provide. Someone or something had bowled the two of them over, and the next thing Yuuko knew, she, Yuki, and the mystery assailant were a mess of arms and legs in the middle of the sidewalk.

"Ngh—What was that for?" Yuuko untangled herself and got up to her feet. Her hair was a mess and her coffee was all over the ground. She picked up the can and regretfully tossed it into the recycling bin. "Yuki, are you okay?"

Yuki's can wasn't open, but it was dented and lying beside him. He twitched and pulled himself up to a seating position before picking it up. "I am. Is he, though?"

Yuuko looked over to the person who'd knocked them over. The smaller boy with the red bandana was picking himself and the full paper bag he was holding up off the ground and dusting off his face.

"Uguu… I told you to move."

Yuuko stepped back and pointed at him. "You're from yesterday! The 'uguu' guy!"

"You two met yesterday?" Yuki stood up. "When was this?"

"I'm not the 'uguu' guy, I have a name…" He stopped, his eyes wide open. "Come on! Quickly!" Before either of them could say anything, he took hold of the paper bag with his mouth so he could grab each of them by the wrists and start running, dragging them both behind him. At the faint sound of someone yelling "stop", he sped up and dragged the two of them down the next street with no sign of stopping.

"Hold it!" Yuuko dug her heels in, not giving in even when she stumbled, and yanked their abductor to a stop. She shook her wrist free and glared when he took the bag out of his mouth. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm being chased!" He let go of Yuki as well and turned around to face them. "Since you saw me, he'd ask questions!"

"So you drag us into it?" Yuuko groaned. "Why don't you just abduct the whole town? You're not exactly inconspicuous."

"Uguu…"

"The reason you're running away…" Yuki thought for a moment. "Does it have to do with the paper bag?"

The stranger gulped.

"That's a yes." Yuuko twitched again. "What's in the bag, anyway? Some kind of illegal contraband?"

"I don't even know what that is! It's just taiyaki!" He turned red and nervously opened the bag. The two of them peered in; it was indeed just taiyaki, and fresh, too.

Yuki smiled curiously. "Are you playing a game?"

"I have no idea why this would be a game," Yuuko sighed. "Come on, explain. You owe it to us, anyway."

"It's a long story—"

"Just do it."

Yuki thought. "When you were running away with us, we heard somebody say 'stop'… You didn't steal that, did you?"

The stranger shuddered. "I didn't mean to! He just scared me, and I didn't have my wallet, and then I ran away, and I couldn't stop or else I'd get caught!"

"…"

"…"

"What?"

"I'm leaving." Yuuko turned around and started to march away. "Come on, Yuki."

"Uguu!" The smaller boy ran after. "Why are you so mad? I didn't even mean to do it!"

"You should forgive him this one time, Yuuko," Yuki said. "He didn't mean to, and besides, running into an adventure like this is kind of fun!"

The other boy paused. "Yuuko…?"

She shook her head with a sigh. This was becoming a habit. "You're a guy. Of course getting kidnapped by a total stranger who's just confessed to a felony sounds like fun to you. Am I the only one who thinks we're going to get murdered?"

"Uguu…" The boy with the taiyaki sulked.

Yuki blinked. "Is stealing taiyaki a felony, or just a crime?"

Yuuko turned back around to them. "Never mind." She grabbed each of them by the wrist and tugged. "We're going back to that taiyaki stand and I'll pay for the food. Then we get groceries. And you, no more kidnapping… whatever your name is."

"It's Ayumu!" He waved his free arm. "Tsukimiya Ayumu!"

"Tsukimiya Ayumu, then," Yuuko repeated. It barely registered, but her expression softened. "Don't do that again. You scared us. Well, at least you scared me. I can't speak for Yuki. Just make sure you have your wallet next time. Come on, let's go."

As she led the boys to the taiyaki stand (though it was really Ayumu doing the leading, as she pried the directions out of him), Yuuko looked at the lowering sun.

_Well, this has been eventful. Hopefully the rest of my time here isn't like this._

* * *

"It sounds like you had a lot of fun today," Akio laughed, setting out the full rice cooker.

"Fun's one word for it…" Yuuko thought back on the ordeal. "But yeah, it was kind of fun. Some of it. Not the kidnapping part."

"Ayumu-san was nice, though," Yuki said. "So it was all fine!"

"Either way, I hope that doesn't happen again," Yuuko groaned. "I'm okay with meeting the guy again, just not the accessory-to-theft part or anything involving fearing for my life."

"Don't worry." Yuki offered her the serving scoop. "This town is safe."

"Hopefully." She took it gratefully. "School's starting for the new term tomorrow, so we'll be busy with that. I don't even know where my alarm clock is in all those boxes."

"I can help with that!" Yuki's face lit up. "You can borrow one from me. Don't worry, I have lots. There are some cute ones, and some that sing, and some that talk, and some that you need to throw in order to turn off…"

"I'm okay with just a normal one, thanks."

If this was how life would be from now on, maybe it really wasn't all that bad.

* * *

She had a dream that night. She was a child, and so was Yuki, and they were wandering in the shopping district – or maybe they had a purpose? Going out for groceries, it looked like. She got distracted waiting outside the store for Yuki after he went in. There was another child. He was crying.

"What's your name?"

"Ayumu…" Sniff.

"Ayumu what?"

"…Ayumu…"

"You only have the one name?" Yuuko rested her hands on her hips. "So I guess you're an alien."

The boy blinked up at her. "What do you mean?"

"Aliens on TV always only have one name." She grinned. "If you're here to conquer Earth, could you beam up the school building with your spaceship so we don't have to go to class?"

He sniffed and rubbed his eyes. "Uguu… I'm not an alien."

"Not an alien, huh?" Yuuko peered closer at the other child's reddening eyes. "How come you're crying?"

He hiccupped back a sob. She frowned and looked around. "C'mon, a distraction…" All she could see was a slowly growing crowd of adults watching and whispering, encircling them so she couldn't even catch sight of the grocery store's doors.

"I can't even hear myself think," Yuuko said under her breath. She reached out and took the crying boy;s wrist, tugging gently for him to get up. "C'mon, Ayumu-alien!"

He got to his feet. "Uguu, I'm not an alien."

She nodded and started to run through the sea of grownups, pulling him behind. "All right then, your name must be Ayumu Ayumu!"

"Uguu!" He protested, dragged along. "I'm not Ayumu Ayumu either!"

"Heh." Yuuko smiled. "Come on, let's find someplace to talk!"

They ran off, Yuki and the groceries now a thought that sat firmly on the backburner.

* * *

_I'm dreaming, too. A different dream. A dream about life. A dream that really happened._

_About strangers and people who only forgot each other. _

_About miracles that could happen, as long as one believed that miracles existed._

_About a warm spring that wouldn't end and a cold winter that only got colder._

_About demons that weren't really demons and angels that were never really angels._

_About memories that were missing, but were really always there, hiding._

_About a promise, and another, and another, all converging, trying to save—_

_And then the dream started again._

* * *

(Author's Note: Welcome to _Canon in G_, a mass genderswap of the Seasonverse (_Kanon, AIR_, and _CLANNAD_) centered around a retelling of _Kanon_. This can be seen as a new variation just like the canon variations, and will take elements of every version of _Kanon_, from the VN to the 2006 and 2002 anime to the manga, the light novels, _Kanon Another Story: Wonder Three, Kanon & AIR Sky_, and even collectible card games. There will also, of course, be things you haven't seen before. After all, every version of _Kanon_ has its surprises.)


	2. Sound of Days, Rustling Trees

_Dream… the first memory I have is a dream._

_I'm alone. I was alone when I woke up, too, but I have the feeling in the dream that I shouldn't be alone, that it's somebody's fault. Somebody left me. Somebody I trusted not to, but they did, and so I was wandering and looking for them. I followed every clue, but I got lost and had to give up in the end. But it wasn't the end! After a long time, I'd gotten really lost, but another clue showed up and I knew that person had to be there!_

_I mean, I don't know why I'd be looking. Maybe they'd just leave me again. I don't even know if it was revenge I was looking for or if I just wanted to be with them again. In the end, I woke up alone and decided to wander._

_How real are dreams?_

* * *

"Nn… huh."

Yuuko groaned and slowly cracked her eyes open. What time was it? She turned toward the white amorphous blob next to her, which, after she rubbed her eyes, solidified into the egg-shaped alarm clock Yuki had lent her. Six-fifteen. Late—no, wait, not late. Early. This was Akio-san's house. She actually lived within walking distance of her new school and didn't have to take the train. The alarm hadn't even gone off yet. Yuuko pulled the sheets up around her and shivered in a doze for a moment. She could probably just go back to sleep…

As soon as she closed her eyes, though, images of that dream filled her mind again, and her eyes snapped open as she shook her head. As if to prove a point, a draft wisped through the crack of the screen door from the balcony, sending her hair on end. Yuuko clutched the sheets and curled into a tighter ball.

"Fine, fine," she grumbled, tossing off the sheets and rolling up to her feet. She turned off the alarm before it could sound and shuffled out, past Yuki's room and down the stairs.

"You're up early!" Akio was already making himself toast and setting out an assortment of jams on the table. "I thought you wouldn't be up until seven."

"So did I." She yawned. "Good morning, Akio-san. Is Yuki still in bed?"

"Usually," he said with a smile. "His school uniform's still in the wash, but it should be ready to dry soon. You did get yours in that package I left on your bed, right?"

Yuuko thought back to the poly envelope in question and nodded. "Yeah, I did. Do people actually wear that thing when it's this cold?"

"You aren't a fan, are you?" He shook his head and laughed. "It's all right. The winter does get cold, but it won't last forever. Just make sure to wear a coat, and maybe bring a change of clothes to get into at school after class is over so you can walk home warmer."

"Thanks, Akio-san," Yuuko said. She inspected the breakfast scene as she went in line for the toaster. "Those jars aren't labeled – did you make all that jam yourself?"

Akio set down his toast and spread on jam from one of the jars. "I did. It costs less overall to grow your own ingredients, and making food is a hobby of mine."

Yuuko popped her own toast into the toaster and fiddled with the settings. "I guess that's why Yuki said you were a really good cook. You've been living up to that so far, too. Thanks again for having me, Akio-san."

"It's no problem," he said. "Even if you weren't family, you need someplace to stay for the next few years. When my sister told me she and your father were looking to move that far away for business, of course I offered to keep you up here if it were easier for you. Do you like it here so far?"

"I don't think I've been here long enough to judge," Yuuko replied, grabbing the toast as it came up and plopping it onto the plate before returning to the table to eat. "Yuki really seems to want me to like it here, though."

"Well, he loves this town." Akio got up and checked the pantry. "Oh, that's right! Sorry to ask you to do this since you just picked up groceries yesterday, but I forgot to put a few things on the list. Could I ask you to get some ingredients for oden after school? I'll give you the money. I'd ask Yuki, but he's got track practice again."

"I'm fine with that," Yuuko said between crisp mouthfuls of toast. "After all, I might as well get more familiar with the area, right?"

"Good to hear." He looked back from sorting through food. "I know it's still early, but could you try to wake Yuki up? I don't want the two of you to be late, so if you just tried, that would be a big help."

Yuuko finished off her breakfast and pushed back her chair. "I don't see why not. Thanks for the food, Akio-san." She cleaned up her dishes and wandered back to the stairs.

_Might as well share the misery of no sleep,_ she thought, finding her way in the small house back toward the second level and the sign reading YUKI'S ROOM. _Then again, it's high school. Between class, homework, and our infinite attempts to put off the latter, nobody ever sleeps._

She knocked, waited for an answer, and carefully opened the door upon hearing none. The otherwise neat room before her had shelves on all sides filled with all kinds of alarm clocks, all ticking down to whatever time they were supposed to go off. In the bed was Yuki, draped over the side, sleeping soundly enough that he could be mistaken either for a statue or a corpse. Yuuko just stood there and shook her head.

_Except for this guy, I guess._

* * *

Indeed, Yuki was still half-asleep as they walked down the hill to school. Yuuko shook her head as she walked with him and occasionally tugged on his sleeve when he started to sleepwalk in the wrong direction.

"How do you even do this every day?" She kept her hold on Yuki's coat as he nearly went over the guardrail.

Yuki bobbed and started awake. "Huh? Good morning, Yuuko." He rubbed his eyes and blinked. "Why are you holding onto my sleeve?"

"Because I don't want to be responsible for your death," she deadpanned, letting go. "How have you lasted this long basically sleepwalking to school?"

"I usually don't sleepwalk," he said with a confused smile. "I wake up later and run the whole way!"

"And that explains the fact that you're the star of the track team." Yuuko stopped and looked around. "Hey, wait, do you hear that?"

Something rustled and thudded behind them. Yuuko and Yuki turned around. The road behind them was empty for the most part, though there was quite obviously a pair of feet sticking out the bottom of a bus shelter where somebody had thought it was a good idea to hide. It wasn't even a child, from the looks of it, but somebody adult-sized or at least their age.

"Somebody's hiding…?" Yuki slowly blinked at the scene. "Why?"

"I don't know, but it's creepy." Yuuko raised her voice. "Tsukimiya, I swear, if that's you again…"

The person in the bus shelter jumped but didn't come out. Yuuko made a face as she stepped back. Yuki turned to her and frowned.

"Let's go another way, Yuuko!" He pointed and started out down the road. "We can lose him that way, and it's faster."

Yuuko took one last look back at the bus shelter and shivered. "Okay, just as long as you don't lose me, too." She started to run after him, half to get away from their follower and half because, even with the thick black tights she had on, that minidress was going to give her frostbite.

Whether the path that veered off the road was actually a shortcut was debatable. It was a clump of trees with a pathway that hadn't been cleared of snow, so Yuuko had to follow in single file and hop in Yuki's bootprints or else sink. When they got through the trees and to a white field with bent stalks of tall grass sticking out of the snow, Yuuko was barely able to convince herself to keep going with only the thought of whatever stalker was back there and the notion that Yuki might fall asleep again and flop over in the field if left unattended.

She looked up. "Hey, didn't this field used to be a lot bigger? I think I remember they were growing crops in here."

"Right!" Yuki looked back. "But then they made the second building for the school, so they took out the field. See?" He pointed forward. "That's the new building, and back there is the old building. Why do you ask?"

Yuuko shook her head. "I don't know. It's better than doing nothing."

They trudged through to the school and stomped the snow off of their boots before switching their shoes out at the shoe lockers.

"Oh, you're here early!"

The two of them looked over. Waving from the stairs was another second-year with a red badge on his uniform. _That guy from yesterday_, Yuuko remembered, as if Yuki's face lighting up at his friend weren't enough of a clue. They walked over to him and waved back.

"Misaka Kaoru, right?" Yuuko bowed. "From yesterday. I remember you and Yuki saying we had class together."

"Morning, Kaoru!" Yuki yawned. "Dad had Yuuko wake me up early so we wouldn't be late. Do you have setup duty this morning or are you just early again?"

"I'm just here early," Kaoru said, running a hand through his curly brown hair. "I was getting some homework done in the classroom and I thought I heard something. For a second, I thought you were the vandal who Kitagawa and the student council are always going on about."

"There's a vandalism problem here?" As they walked up the stairs, Yuuko checked out of the corner of her eye for traces of spray paint or broken glass. "You wouldn't think so from looking."

"Sometimes you'll find broken windows and dented walls, like somebody threw something really heavy or was smashing things with a desk," Kaoru said. "It's not a huge problem, but it's consistent. Don't worry, they're pretty sure they know who's doing it. Besides, everyone knows Yuki wouldn't do it and you're new, Yuuko, so you two have nothing to worry about."

"We're here." Yuki opened the classroom door and then paused. "Wait, since you're new, Yuuko, you should go to the headmaster's office first. It's just down the hall from here."

Yuuko looked where he was pointing. "Oh, right. Thanks, Yuki. I already owed you for waking you up early and for that shortcut this morning." She turned to Kaoru and shook her head. "We saw someone following us this morning. Probably nothing, but it was still kind of creepy."

Kaoru looked off. "I don't like that feeling, either. …Come on, Yuki, let's take our seats. We'll see you in class, Yuuko."

* * *

An orange-haired boy trudged through the snow, stepping in the tall bootprints that Yuki had left leading through the plains. Whatever that big building was at the end of the trail, those two had probably gone in there. He sniffed. He could handle the cold, but he still couldn't blame them. Even so!  
As if it weren't embarrassing enough to be found…

That thought was cut off by a sudden gust of wind. He clutched his ears and cringed at the cold. The wind lifted his hat off his head and started to blow it away. He opened his eyes and jumped up with a start.

"Auu!"

He bounded after the hat, making new tracks in the snow-piled field and shivering as snow fell down into his boots. It blew into the school courtyard and tumbled into a bush, where he ran after it and nearly slipped on a patch of ice on the sidewalk. Finally, he reached the bush and, with a wide grin, triumphantly held up the hat.

"Got it!"

He heard laughing and spun to the side. Standing there was a boy about his age, wearing a checked blanket around his shoulders that was making his short brown hair stand up with static. He covered his mouth and shook his head, smiling at the boy with the hat.

"I'm sorry. You just seemed to be having fun."

"Hmph." The orange-haired boy put his hat back on firmly and tried to brush the snow off of the red felt. "I'm looking for somebody I saw this morning. Somebody really important!"

"That makes two of us," said the other. "What's your name?"

"…I have no idea." He looked away. "What's yours?"

"Iori," the one with the blanket said. "Interesting, I haven't met somebody before who didn't know what their name was."

"Actually, I can't remember anything at all from before I woke up under a park bench this morning." The one with the hat said it like he was describing what he'd eaten for breakfast. "But then I saw somebody pass by and I knew it was someone I had to talk to."

"That's interesting too!" Iori paced with a sparkle in his eye. "Maybe it's somebody you cared about!"

"Absolutely no way!" The one with the hat crossed his arms. "It's someone I hate! But…"

"But?"

"But that's all I know." He sighed. "She's my only lead. I want to know who I am and why I forgot everything in the first place, and even if I'm chasing after someone and all I know is that I don't like them, maybe I'll find out more."

Iori nodded along. "Even if all this is hard to believe, it sounds sort of fun!"

"Fun?"

"Yes!" He smiled. "I want to know all about what you've seen so far. Maybe you'll learn more by telling it."

"That sounds kind of weird to me," said the one with the hat.

Iori made a face. "I dislike people who say things like that."

"Auu." The one with the hat grumbled. "Okay. There isn't much to tell, though. I woke up under a park bench. I didn't even have breakfast."

"You didn't?" Iori dug for his wallet. "We can go get something to eat. I was going to go pick up some things later today, so I've got money."

"To get food?" His eyes lit up.

Iori smiled. "Of course. Let's go! I haven't gone out with friends to eat in a long time. You can tell me about the person you were looking for, too."

* * *

At the end of the day, the class was clearing out of the room. Yuki looked over to Yuuko in the desk beside him with the sleepy smile that she was already getting used to.

"How did you like your first day of school?"

Yuuko shrugged. "School is school, no matter where you are. This one's twice the size of my old school, but it's not really different." She smirked. "To be completely honest, I was expecting a huge crowd around my desk at lunch like they do with transfer students on TV, but everybody grouped off into clumps at the cafeteria instead and talked about how their winter break went and whether the world's really going to end after this year. It was a little disappointing."

Yuki laughed and shook his head. "I don't think that would actually happen in real life."

"You never know." Kaoru got up from his seat. "Maybe if you'd made a bigger impression during your introduction, you'd have fanboys all over you and Yuki would have to beat them away."

"Kaoru…" Yuki frowned.

Yuuko laughed and stood up from her desk. "Class introductions are all the same anyway. If you're asking me to get up in front of the class and announce I'm looking for signs of lost time travelers, you've got the wrong person for that."

"Aww." Junri pouted. "That's what I should have done!"

"Oh, Kitagawa." Yuuko looked over at the pigtailed girl. "Do you have any club meetings after school? I know those two do." She waved goodbye to Yuki and Kaoru, who excused themselves from the room, and turned back to Junri.

"Not today," Junri said. "I'm just going to wait for Kaoru to get out of his meeting and walk home with him. Why? You know we talked about you and Kaoru yesterday!"

Sigh. "Not this again. Kitagawa, I solemnly swear that I have no interest in Misaka Kaoru and I don't see that changing in the foreseeable future. I was just asking because I have to get groceries while Yuki's at track practice and I'm sensibly wary of going outside alone if there's some creeper lurking around."

"Well, okay. But I'm watching you!" She pointed at her eyes and then at Yuuko. "As far as how safe this place is, though, it's a good neighbourhood. The only thing we have to worry about around here is that guy breaking the windows at school, and Kuze thinks she knows who it is."

They made their way out of the classroom and down the hall. Yuuko raised an eyebrow. "Kuze?"

"Kuze Hiroka," Junri explained. "She's the student council president. She definitely gets things done, but sometimes she gets a little too obsessed. This one time, we had a plagiarism problem and the headmaster told the student council to take care of it. She jumped down the throat of anyone who even looked like they might not be sourcing their essays, even with just circumstantial evidence! I sure wouldn't want to be the guy she's singled out for breaking the windows." Junri rubbed the back of her head and laughed.

"Sounds like someone I wouldn't want to cross either." Yuuko shivered and looked over at the source of the breeze. Sure enough, one of the windows had a large piece of cardboard taped over a hole, and cold air was blowing in through the gaps the cardboard didn't cover.

"Yeah, really." Junri let out a quiet sigh. "But as long as we get things done with her in charge, I guess it works. My job on the council doesn't have much to do with that, either. I mostly just help organize school events like the winter formal the seniors throw."

Yuuko nodded along. "Good to know. Thanks, Kitagawa. This is the main door, right?" She pointed down the stairs. "I'll trust you and go for the groceries. I need to get them and get back to Akio-san's before it gets too cold, anyway."

"Always trust me!" Junri gave the V sign and winked. "See you tomorrow, Aizawa. I'm going to wait for Kaoru."

"See you." Yuuko waved and walked down the stairs, making note of where she was. Something nagged at the back of her head as she switched her shoes out at the shoe locker. She paused for a moment, shook her head, and left.

* * *

Just like the previous day, Tsukimiya Ayumu was wandering the shopping district. He was looking over and under objects apparently at random, occasionally peering into an alley and debating walking inside. He even looked inside the mailboxes lining the street. His shoulders slumped as he closed another empty one.

"Uguu. I'm never going to find it at this rate."

He started to drift across the street, until he stopped short. The warm, crisp aroma of taiyaki wafted over, and he glanced in its direction. The same taiyaki stand from the previous day stood there, its owner baking up fresh pastries. Ayumu began to stare, fighting off the temptation to run over there with the fear of what would happen if he didn't have his wallet again. Did he? Where would he have put it if he didn't have it? Wait, for that matter, where would he have put it if he did?

He jumped when he heard somebody clear their throat behind him.

"Uguu! Don't scare me— Huh?"

There was nobody there. A lonely breeze blew past, and something fluttered on the ground. Ayumu peered down. A stuffed, unaddressed envelope was skidding and tumbling around on the ground with the light wind, moving back and forth. Ayumu thought for a moment; the envelope's stilting movements started to send it past him.

"Ah!" His face lit up and he began to chase the fluttering thing down the road, not watching for anything else. "Come on—yes!"

He lunged forward. His mitten closed over the envelope, and – thud. Crash.

"Ow… Tsukimiya?"

Something soft had broken his fall onto the pavement. Ayumu rubbed his head with his free hand and sat up. Lying on the ground was a groaning, twitching Yuuko.

"You're from yesterday…" Ayumu looked down. "Yuuko!"

"Aizawa Yuuko, that's me." She sighed. "Now, if you could get off of me, that would be great."

"Uguu… Sorry." Ayumu stood up. Yuuko got up and rubbed the back of her head.

"Thank you." _At least I'm not bleeding. Or I don't think I am, anyway._"What were you running around for, anyway? What's that thing in your hand?"

Ayumu beamed and showed her the slightly battered envelope. "I found it just now! I don't know what's in it, but I hope it's my lost item!"

Yuuko raised her eyebrow. "I commend your dedication, Tsukimiya, but seriously, the odds of that kind of coincidence happening would have to be somewhere around the same odds that it's going to rain chocolate tomorrow."

"Uguu." He crossed his arms. "It could happen."

"I guess," she said. "Might as well try opening it to see."

Ayumu nodded. He pulled off one mitten and tore open the envelope one-handed. Inside was a folded paper, which he pulled out and clumsily opened. He read it over and tilted his head.

"What is it?" Yuuko asked. "Your lost thing?"

"It's just a note," he said, offering it out. "I don't think it's the thing I lost. Look at what it says."

Yuuko took the offered paper and read it over. It had only a few lines, written carefully and in large print.

_Watch the people around you.  
Take care for them.  
The more happiness you bring to others,  
the more you will have in return._

The two of them stared at it for a few seconds. Ayumu tilted his head. Yuuko facepalmed.

"What do you think it means?" Ayumu asked.

"It's some kind of motivational quotation." Yuuko groaned. "Seriously? I'd expect this on a poster in the doctor's office, not floating around town."

"I don't think that would be my lost item," Ayumu said. "It isn't my handwriting, either."

They both shook their heads and laughed. Yuuko smiled down at the short boy.

"I feel like I understand you more." She winced. "Although I also feel a goose egg forming on the back of my head, so maybe that's messed with my brain."

Ayumu slumped. "I said I was sorry for knocking you over."

"Don't worry about it." Yuuko gently touched the back of her head again, checking to see how bad it was. "Just don't do it again. I'm actually pretty glad I met you here again. I had something to ask."

"Like what?"

"It's stupid, but…" She coughed. "We've met before, right? A long time ago."

Ayumu's eyes slowly widened.

"Aizawa Yuuko… Yuuko~!"

This time, she was prepared when he leapt forward and hugged her in the middle of the shopping district.

* * *

Still wearing the blanket over his shoulders, the first-year stood outside the door of the convenience store as people moved in and out. He closed his eyes and thought back for a moment. With a soft smile and a shake of the head, Misaka Iori walked away without buying anything.


	3. One Step Back

_Dream… I thought it was a dream._

_There are a lot of things in this world that are real, though people don't believe in them. When faced with proof, sometimes they can't deal with it. But I can. I know. I can feel it in myself and I can see it all around me. I also know what people, most people, would do with the truth if they saw it._

_Of all people, I can deal with it not being a dream… can't I?_

* * *

"Yuuko~!"

Yuuko stepped back and caught the flying Ayumu, bracing herself so as not to fall down this time. She put him down – easily enough, as he was a head shorter than she was – and sighed. "Is that really necessary?"

"Uguu." Ayumu let go and turned away. "Of course it's necessary! I haven't seen you in years!"

"You saw me yesterday and the day before yesterday." Yuuko shook her head. "You just didn't remember me then."

"Did you?" Ayumu turned back to her.

Yuuko frowned. "…Sorry, Ayumu. To be completely honest with you, I barely remember or recognize my family here, let alone you. It sounds stupid, but when I came here, all the time I ever spent here was a total blank, and coming back has only given me a few things to remember so far." _Some of which came in dreams,_ she thought, _but saying that would make me sound ridiculous. Not that this whole thing isn't ridiculous already._

He peered up curiously. "Really?"

"I'm not lying," she said. "I do know that I knew you, though… Alien Ayumu Ayumu."

Ayumu flailed his arms. "Uguu! Of all the things you had to remember, it had to be that!"

Yuuko burst out laughing. "Sorry, sorry! Well, now I definitely know it's you. Come on, if you're mad I'll make it up to you with taiyaki or something, okay?"

"Uguu… really?" he asked.

"Yes." Yuuko studied his face and sighed. "Besides, I'm pretty sure you forgot your wallet anyway, didn't you?"

He nearly slipped on the icy sidewalk. "Uwah!"

Yuuko grabbed the back of his jacket to keep him from falling. She smirked. "Got it in one. Try and remember it next time."

"I will…" Ayumu pouted. "You're not my babysitter, you know. We're the same age."

"Seriously?" Yuuko asked. "You look a lot younger, no offence."

"Everybody tells me that," he grumbled. "It's not my fault."

"Sorry." She shook her head. "But seriously, I'll treat you tonight as long as you remember to actually bring money next time you want taiyaki. Come on."

With Yuuko there paying, the purchase of taiyaki went without incident, although the vendor kept looking at Ayumu. The duo walked down the sidewalk, Ayumu holding the bag and occasionally offering it for Yuuko to pull out a pastry.

"Thank you!" Ayumu beamed at her. "I haven't eaten since lunch, so this is great."

"You're welcome," Yuuko said, taking a bite out of the taiyaki in her hand. "Do you get this stuff every day? You'd think you'd have some left over from yesterday. You got a whole bag, after all."

"Oh, I had the leftovers for lunch today," he said. "Besides, taiyaki tastes better when it's freshly baked!"

"Taiyaki for lunch and taiyaki for after-school snack." Yuuko stared. "I'm afraid to ask what you had for breakfast. You're going to get sick, you know."

Ayumu shook his head. "For your information, I haven't gotten sick in years."

"I'm not sure how. Taiyaki might be good, but there's this thing called a balanced—" They turned the corner and Yuuko froze. "Oh, no."

"What?" Ayumu asked.

Yuuko stared forward at Cosmos Grocery and facepalmed. "The oden ingredients!"

* * *

The orange-haired boy shivered and pulled his hat down as close to over his ears as it would go. His stomach growled as he wandered the streets. It always got colder at night, he knew, though he didn't know where he knew it from. The sun was still up, and there were still a lot of people walking around, but if he wasn't going to find that person again, then he might as well find someplace where he wouldn't freeze. Sniffing and wiping his icy nose with his sleeve, he almost didn't notice the brown-haired boy from that morning walk up to him.

"It's you again," he said with a wave. "Are you going home now?"

The orange-haired boy's shoulders slumped. "I would, but I forgot where home is. I don't want to sleep under the bench again, so I'm looking for somewhere else to go."

Iori thought for a moment as he walked beside him. "Well, why don't you stay over with me for the night? My brother's gone anyway, and my parents will probably be happy that one of us brought a friend over." He put a finger to his chin. "I'm sure they made enough food."

At the word 'food', the other boy's eyes lit up and he pumped his fists. "Of course! I'm coming! Where is it? Let's go right now!"

Iori laughed quietly. "It's close, don't worry. Just this way. By the way…"

"Auu?"

"I don't know what to call you," Iori confessed. "I know it isn't your fault, but it would be easier to have a name."

The orange-haired boy scratched behind his ear. "Even if I don't know what it is?"

Iori thought. "If you can't remember what your name is, what names can you remember?"

"Yuuko," he said without hesitation.

The two of them paused awkwardly and looked at each other. Iori shook his head. "No offense, but that probably isn't your name. I guess it could be, though. Maybe your parents thought you were a girl."

The other boy waved his arms. "I'm not a girl at all!"

"All right. I'm making sure." Iori smiled. "What's the next name you can remember?"

There was a long pause. The boy breathed in and out and tried to search for anything he'd heard, anything he might remember in that blank space. Finally, he squeaked out an unsure answer.

"…Makoto?"

Iori nodded. "I'm not sure if that's your name, but it works! Makoto it is. Let's go."

* * *

Yuuko swung open the door and stomped the snow off her boots in the foyer. "I'm home!" She rested the bags of groceries on the floor, closed the door, and swapped her boots out for inside slippers. Picking up the groceries, she made her way in. "Sorry I'm a little late."

"That's all right." Akio popped his head out from the kitchen. "Yuki's going to be home late, too. He just called me and said he was bringing a friend over. Do you know Misaka Kaoru-kun yet? He sleeps over sometimes when he can."

"Kaoru's coming over?" Yuuko brought the ingredients into the kitchen and started to remove them from the bags. "I thought he was going home with Kitagawa."

"I didn't hear anything about that." Akio put a hand up to his face. "I suppose plans do change. Kaoru-kun does come over spontaneously at times. I'm sure they've worked it out."

"Sure," Yuuko said. _No offense, Akio-san, but five hundred yen says he ditched Kitagawa without even telling her. I'm sure she's wandering around the school calling for him right this minute. _Yuuko went for the soy sauce. "Need some help with that?"

"Oh, don't worry," Akio said. "I'm fine cooking by myself. You can do your homework or rest up in your room before Yuki and his friend get home and we eat."

"Thanks." Yuuko tried to mask her sigh of relief. She left the kitchen, climbed the stairs up to the spare room that was filled with boxes of her things, and flopped down upon the bed.

_Long day again. Maybe this town really is always this interesting. In that case, I have no idea what to do about it._

She lay and thought until Yuki and Kaoru came in and Akio called her down.

* * *

That night, another dream came where Yuuko was a child. She was about the same age as in the last dream, probably about nine or ten, but it wasn't winter that time. It felt like late summer or early fall, with the sun's bright warmth shining, sometimes so bright that you looked up and had to close your eyes just as quickly as they watered up and you started seeing foggy rainbows under your eyelids. Yuuko would later note that, if all her dreams were like this, then it was a whole lot better than the chill she had to wake up to in real life.

In the dream, Yuuko ran through a field of tall barley. It was the same field she'd walked through to get to school, but bigger – only the old school building was there, and where the new one would be, there was more and more barley. She laughed and cartwheeled through the rows, fumbling and crashing to the dirt.

"Are you okay?" A short boy with dark blue hair ran to her side, suppressing a quiver.

Yuuko laughed and beamed up at him. "Of course I'm okay!" She pulled herself to her feet, wincing a little when she brushed the dust and small rocks out of her scrapes. "You don't have to fix it. See, it's not even bleeding."

The boy slowly smiled. "…Okay. Do you still want to play hide-and-go-seek?"

"Sure!" Yuuko paused. "Except you probably need a handicap. You're too good at hide-and-go-seek…"

* * *

"…and that was my dream."

Yuuko was walking down the road to school and occasionally reining Yuki in lest he sleepwalk into a tree. Kaoru was on the other side of her, or at least she was until Junri ran up and squeezed herself in between them, not that Yuuko honestly cared who was beside whom. She touched her forehead and closed her eyes, shaking her head.

Junri looked over at her. "Just playing outside was your whole dream? No offence, Yuuko, but you have pretty boring dreams for a girl with memory loss."

Yuki rubbed his eyes and yawned. "What kinds of dreams do you have, then, Kitagawa?"

"Well…" Junri put a hand behind her head. "Last night, I had a dream that there was a huge dragon sitting in our school gymnasium! It was taking up all the space while all the students were crammed into the corner by the scoreboard. Everybody kept complaining that we were all squished together, but nobody even knew the dragon was there. No one saw it. They didn't even know why we were all stuck there. Even when the dragon set the gym on fire and we had to go out the door in single file, no one knew the dragon was there. They were all just blaming each other. It was kind of weird."

Yuuko stared. "…Seriously. That was your dream."

"Yeah!" Junri rubbed the back of her head. "Most dreams are pretty weird compared to just mundane things happening like in yours."

"I think you just ate something weird last night," Kaoru said without even looking at Junri.

"W-what?" Junri deflated. "It's totally a dream anyone would have! I'm not some kind of weirdo! Kaoru, listen to meee!"

Yuuko just shook her head and sighed.

* * *

After an unremarkable morning in which the only thing to note was the computer science teacher telling them at least five times that there was no bug in existence that was going to end the world, class finally let out for lunch.

"Lead the way, Yuki," said Yuuko, patting her pocket to make sure her lunch card was still there. "I still have no idea where anything is in this school. My old school didn't even _have _a cafeteria."

"Don't worry." Yuki gave the sleepy smile that Yuuko was starting to get used to. "You'll start to recognnn… zzzwhoa!" His eyes started to close on their own as he turned the corner, only to snap open when he stumbled on the top of the stairs.

"Watch out!" Yuuko lunged forward, shooting her arm out to grab the back of his uniform jacket. The next few seconds flashed by like still photos, from trying to grab Yuki to the two of them falling further forward to two third-years looking up from the bottom of the stairs, one of them standing in front to guard the other and the lunch boxes he was carrying. Predictably, Yuki crashed right into him and knocked him over, and Yuuko landed face first on the both of them while the one carrying the lunch boxes blinked at the scene.

Well. This was awkward.

Yuuko promptly removed herself once she came to her senses. She offered her hand to help up her flattened fellow students. "You guys okay?"

Yuki took it and got up, awkwardly letting go once he was on his feet. "Mostly… I'm sorry!" He bowed to the seniors and looked away. "I didn't mean to."

"…It's fine." The one he'd landed on got up and nonchalantly brushed off his pants. He turned his head to his companion. "Satoru?"

"Oh, Satoru and the food are all right." He smiled and bowed at their juniors. "It was surprising, though. You two are all right, aren't you?"

Yuuko rubbed her face. "Yeah, we'll live. We kind of crushed your friend, but if he's okay then that's good." She looked at Mahiro and bowed slightly. "Sorry. Second day here and already fell down the stairs onto people. This isn't looking hopeful, huh?"

"You're new?" Satoru asked. "Satoru knew he recognized Minase-kun, since he's very popular with the girls, but you did seem unfamiliar. It's nice to meet you!"

Yuki pointed at himself, unsure. "You know me, but I don't know who you two are…?"

"That's okay!" Satoru smiled. "Kurata Satoru. This is Kawasumi Mahiro! We're third-years, and we wouldn't have seen the two of you a lot anyway, so Satoru doesn't blame you at all for not knowing." Mahiro nodded, still not showing any expression.

Yuuko laughed uncomfortably. "Nice to meet you too, circumstances aside. Like you said, this is Minase Yuki, and I'm Aizawa Yuuko. Sorry to hold you up. You should probably be getting to lunch, right?"

"Oh! Satoru totally forgot." He bowed again and adjusted his grip on the lunch boxes. We'll be going now. We'll see you again! Right, Mahiro?"

"…Probably." He nodded, not unkindly but still hollow. "Let's go."

A fifth voice came from up on the stairs. "Don't run off so quickly, now."

The four of them all turned and looked up at once. Walking down was a cold-eyed girl with black princess curls, wearing the powder blue ribbon of a third-year student. She pushed up her thin, rectangular glasses and frowned.

"Kawasumi Mahiro," she said. "You do remember that you have an appointment at the headmaster's office after school, don't you? He won't accept it if you conveniently forget to go. Nor, I should add, will I."

Mahiro stared her down. He gave a small nod. "I remember."

"Good. See that you do." She glared him and turned to Satoru with a frown. "Go about your business."

Mahiro didn't react. Satoru gave a polite bow. "Have a nice day, Kuze-san," he said, and the two of them walked away up the stairs.

_Kuze, huh?_ Yuuko thought back. _I heard that name yesterday, too._The black-haired girl seemed to notice her juniors for the first time and turned to look the two of them over.

"Minase Yuki-san," she said, tensely placing a hand on her hip. "And you… you must be the new girl, aren't you? Aizawa Yuuko, in the same second-year class."

"Hello, Kuze-senpai," Yuki said with a bow. "Yuuko, this is—"

"You sure seem to know a lot," Yuuko interrupted, shrugging her long hair behind her shoulder with a grin. "Let me guess. You're the student council president, right? Kitagawa told me about you."

"Indeed." Kuze smirked. "My name is Kuze Hiroka. You might be seeing a lot of me."

She turned her head up to the top of the stairs, where the other two were already out of sight, and then looked towards Yuuko and Yuki like she wasn't even looking at them.

"Your reputations are important," she said. "Don't get involved with _that_ sort of thing. It's bad enough that somebody from a good family, like Kurata Satoru, insists on running around with Kawasumi."

Kuze walked off in the other direction. Yuuko looked at Yuki with an eyebrow raised.

"That sort of thing? Good family?" she asked. "I didn't know I'd moved onto the set of a Victorian drama."

"I'm not sure what's going on either," Yuki said, a worried look on his face. "I'm sure it's nothing. Kuze-senpai just takes things very seriously. Come on, before we miss lunch."

Yuuko paused, looking up again, before she nodded. "Sure. What are they serving today again?"

"I think it's yakisoba and seaweed soup," Yuki smiled. "Let's go before they run out!"

* * *

After lunch, despite Yuki's assurances that what transpired at lunch was absolutely nothing, the events at the staircase were still on Yuuko's mind. To be fair, they were a lot more interesting than the teacher at the front of the class rambling on about permutations like even she didn't know what she was teaching. Yuuko propped her head up on her hand and let her eyes wander out the window at the snowy town.

It looked nice enough when she didn't have to walk in it. The snow sat peacefully on the trees and grass of the school courtyard, and past there, the roads and lines of houses. Yuuko had thought she was getting used to the town's layout, but thinking about it, Yuki had only shown her the immediate area. The paths she was starting to become familiar with – Akio-san's house, the shopping district (still pretty easy to get lost in), and the oversized school – now looked a lot less impressive compared to how much of the town she didn't know. There were rows and hills of neighbourhoods and shops, clumps of trees without buildings that Yuuko figured were probably parks, bigger buildings like the bus station and what was probably a business district even if the buildings weren't all that tall. One hill out at the edge of town caught Yuuko's eye. She leaned closer to the window and focused her eyes. Despite the thick blanket of snow covering dry, brown grass and leafless trees everywhere else, that hill was bright and green.

Around the perimeter of the town was a thick forest in every direction, growing up in hills that were as snowy as the rest of the town. Yuuko's eyes gravitated up to the very top of one, off to the other side. It was covered in pine trees, but somehow...

Yuuko jumped in her desk at a tug on her sleeve. Yuki let go and pointed at the board. A long set of problems took up the entire left half of the board, and the right half had three pages written down and circled. The entire rest of the class was already writing in their notebooks.

"It would just figure," Yuuko said under her breath. She opened up her notebook and textbook and tried, for a given value of trying, to read enough to comprehend the assignment. Before the class ended, her eyes were wandering out the window again. This time, two boys about her age, maybe a bit younger, were standing in the courtyard and looking up at the window. One had orange hair under a red hat and was visibly looking around for something or another, although frantically enough that he probably wouldn't find anything anyway. The other had short brown hair and was calmly eating something. Was that a cup of ice cream? In January? Why.

_Lucky_, Yuuko thought. _I wish I could just out-and-out ditch school_.

* * *

The school day finally ended and the students went to go their separate ways. Junri had classroom cleaning duty, and Kaoru… apparently he had something to do that, to Junri's dismay, had nothing to do with cleaning duty. At least Yuki was there, though, so hopefully Yuuko wouldn't get lost or anything. They walked out the front door and kept down the path while the crowd of exiting students around them filtered away down this or that side road.

"You remembered your math book, right?" Yuuko hefted her own book bag over her shoulder. "I didn't get that class at all, and I need some help."

"I did! I remembered it because I thought of how you were looking out the window." Yuki pumped his fist a little.

"Glad to be of help," Yuuko sighed. "Aren't you a bit too proud of remembering to take your stuff home?"

Yuki's shoulders dropped. "I'm just having fun…"

"Don't worry about it!" Yuuko waved her arms. "I was just saying. I know I forget stuff all the time. Could you help me out with the math tonight?"

Yuki brightened. "Uh-huh! Of course I would help you, Yuuko…" He stopped walking and tilted his head. "Do you hear that?"

Yuuko halted as well. They heard footsteps and shuffling behind them, a squeak, and a sudden stop.

"Not this again." She groaned and turned around. "Ayumu?"

It wasn't Ayumu. Before them, the orange-haired boy who'd been in the courtyard out the window stood up, dramatically flinging off the blanket that was covering his head. It would have looked perfectly startling and intimidating, had it not blown out of his hand, knocked off his hat, and gone flying down the street.

"Auuu!" He flailed and lunged forward for the hat. Yuuko dodged to the side. The boy's fingertips barely closed over the edge of the hat, and his triumphant expression lasted about half a second before his foot slipped on a patch of ice and he crashed to the ground.

"…" Yuuko and Yuki looked at the 'attacker' now flat on his face, then at each other, and then back to him. _There is really no word for this,_ Yuuko thought. _None_.

"Makoto-kun, are you okay?" The other boy who'd been with him before ran up slowly, panting and gasping. "Are these two the people you were talking about?"

"Auu…" The boy named Makoto sat up and rubbed his face. He sprung to his feet and pointed at Yuuko. "It's her for sure! She's the one who did it!"

Yuki's eyes widened. "Yuuko, what did you do?"

"Nothing!" She groaned. "I swear I've never seen this guy in my life, and I have no idea what his problem is."

The other boy shook his head and laughed quietly. "Maybe you forgot?"

Yuuko hesitated. "…Okay, maybe it's possible. But seriously, what did I do?"

"Why don't you try and remember? Why do I have to?" Makoto waved his arms in a manner that was probably supposed to be intimidating but instead made him look like a child pretending to be a windmill.

Yuki slowly tilted his head. "Are you saying that you don't remember why you're angry at her?"

"Auu!" Makoto stood up straight as a plank, slipped, and landed on his rear this time. "Owww, that hurt…"

"Makoto, be careful," the other boy said with a little smile.

"It's not like I meant to fall, Iori." Makoto pouted and got up, giving a death glare to the ice.

"Uh, everybody?" Yuki pointed at the checked brown and white blanket that Makoto had been using as a "disguise", now stuck in a tree a block and a half down. "Shouldn't we get that…?"

Yuuko just sighed. "Okay. I guess this town _is_ always that interesting."

* * *

"That sure took a long time," Satoru said as he and Mahiro left the school late. "What did the headmaster want to talk to you about?"

Mahiro kept walking and looking ahead. "It's nothing."

Satoru frowned. His hand went to the green tie he was wearing; the other students didn't have them, but the school didn't mind. "They don't still think you broke the windows, do they?"

Mahiro gave the tiniest of nods. "I'm fine. Don't worry."

"Hello!"

They stopped in the street and turned to the voice. Tsukimiya Ayumu was running up to them with a smile and a wave.

"You were from the other day!" He stopped in front of them. "Have you found anything that looks lost yet? I'm still looking for my stuff."

"Satoru hasn't. What about you, Mahiro?"

"…No." Mahiro shook his head.

"Aww." Ayumu sighed. "It's okay! I'll keep looking. Thank you!"

As Ayumu ran off down the street, Mahiro's eyes carefully followed until he turned the corner.

"…I knew it."

"Knew what?" Satoru blinked. "What are you talking about, Mahiro?"

"Satoru. I'd like to borrow your cell phone." He looked at his companion. "There's somebody I need to call now."


	4. Seeing Signs

_Dream… it's still a dream._

_Most of the time, it's like my life isn't even real. When the track your life is supposed to take is a dead end wasting away, the only alternative is to get out and stand on the outside, watching everybody else live and waiting for them to notice. I can't even act myself, because they just work even harder to block me out. Their perfect world doesn't include a flawed embarrassment._

_Up until now, anyway._

* * *

Yuuko dumped the contents of her school bag out onto the corner of her bed and flopped down beside them. "That was weird."

Yuki followed, sitting down on the rug. "Do you mean those two from before?"

"Obviously." Yuuko sat up and leaned forward, propping her chin up with her hands. "I still can't figure out what I did to make that one guy mad. They didn't even give their last names, just… who did they say they were again?"

"Iori and Makoto." Yuki frowned. "Makoto was the one who was so angry at you. He didn't even know why, and I can't remember meeting him at all in the past, either."

Yuuko sighed. "I need to stop before I obsess over this. I'd rather do homework. Hey, Yuki, do you understand today's math at all? I have no idea what the teacher was going on about."

"Of course I'll help!" Yuki opened up his bag and slid out the notebooks. "I did agree, didn't I?"

"Just checking." Yuuko rifled through her pile and dug out the math books and pencil. She knelt down on the floor and shivered when she touched the cold hardwood, quickly shuffling to the rug. "Okay, let's get this algebra over with."

* * *

The sky got dark quickly in winter, especially in a city surrounded by hills like this one. The sun was already past the horizon by four-thirty, at which point Makoto and Iori were back in the school courtyard.

"I can't believe they just left like that!" Makoto fumed. "I didn't even get proper revenge."

Iori offered an apologetic shrug as the streetlights turned on past the fence. "They didn't know why you were upset. At least they heard you out." He folded his blanket. "They helped get my blanket out of the tree, too, so maybe they aren't all bad."

"I know she's that bad and more." Makoto grumbled. "I just don't remember why, is all, and if she'd take me seriously then maybe we'd get somewhere!"

"You're probably right." Iori looked at the snowy ground. "Have you found someplace to stay tonight? I could have you over again, although it might bother my brother..."

"Of course!" Makoto threw his arms in the air. "Anything to not have to sleep in the park again! But hey, Iori!" He pointed to the second-floor window they'd been looking in before. "Now that it's closed, we should check out that place first."

"That place?" Iori looked over. "What, inside the school?"

Makoto bounded in front of him. "Yes! She goes there all the time, right? If she won't listen to me here, and if I don't know where she lives, maybe I can find clues at the place where she's always at."

Iori blinked and stared at the enthusiastic face in front of his. "You do realize you sound like a stalker, right?"

Makoto scratched behind his own ear. "Auu? Stalker?"

"Yes."

"How?"

Iori laughed awkwardly. "I know you just want to know who you are, but you sound a little obsessed with her and now you want to look through her stuff."

"Auu… What else am I supposed to do?" Makoto sulked.

"I have no idea."

Something shuffled at the side and Makoto leapt behind a bench. Iori laughed but crouched behind the bench as well.

"What are we doing now, Makoto?"

"Shhhhhh." He pointed between the slats in the bench. There was a young man with a black ponytail walking at the side of the courtyard near where they'd been, following a packed-down path of trampled snow. He stopped just out of sight of the security lights on the outside of the building, leaned over to reach a first-level windowsill with the snow cleared off of it, and tugged open the frozen latches. Makoto and Iori watched with eyes wide as the newcomer forced the outside window open and pulled up the inside window by doing something – they were too far to see, but it looked like he was forcing a flat piece of metal into a weakness in the wood casing and then using it as a lever to get it up the first few centimetres. He jumped onto the sill, slid into the classroom through the window, and put everything back before disappearing in the dark room behind the window.

Makoto and Iori slowly rose enough to peer at the window over the top of the bench. They looked at each other and then back at the window.

"Is _he_ a stalker?" Makoto's eyes were sparkling.

"Maybe!" Iori gave a subdued but devious grin. "But you know, if he is, then we'll probably get arrested if we knew about him but didn't try to stop him."

"Auuu!" Makoto sprung to his feet. "But he just went in there already!"

"And we know how he got in." Iori stood up and closed his eyes, holding up his index finger. "Now we'll be breaking into the school for the greater good!"

Makoto nodded enthusiastically. He scrambled over the bench and bounded over to the window, and Iori followed more carefully.

* * *

Unaware of his new 'stalker' label, Kawasumi Mahiro moved through the school. He'd already retrieved a thin prop sword that he'd stashed in the back of a cabinet in the classroom he came in through, wrapped in a blanket. Now, he carried the sword in both hands, openly and unwrapped, as he walked with a purpose through the halls.

Makoto crouched on the ground and poked his head out from behind the door. He sniffed and his eyes locked onto the person walking through the halls. Iori moved over to the door and looked out too, though he was standing and trying to cover his mouth before he laughed at the adventure they'd fallen into.

"Is that a real sword?" Makoto whispered.

"Hmm…" Iori squinted and leaned forward. "It looks plastic." Satisfied with this declaration, he drew back and continued to watch.

"Why would somebody walk around with a plastic sword?" Makoto asked.

Maybe that was a bit too loud. Mahiro froze in his steps. Iori pulled himself and Makoto back past the door and waited for their quarry to decide the noise was nothing and start moving again. He did eventually, and they sighed in united relief and quickly went back to the door. Once he turned a corner, they swung the door open and ran to the edge of the wall to creep around that. They continued and ran from cover to cover as quietly as they could to follow after him.

Mahiro's path led him and his tails to the hall right outside the gym. Iori and Makoto looked and quickly drew back to hide. Somebody was already there.

"Good to see you, Kawasumi-kun."

The light through the window showed a woman in a light tan work outfit, leaning against the electrical panel box on the wall. She stood up and bowed slightly. Her clothes were old but clean, and her hair was dark blue, a little long in the front, as if she hadn't gone to the hair salon in a while. When she cleared her throat, Mahiro bowed silently as well.

"I'm here." Mahiro paused. "Was it safe?"

"Safe in here? Don't worry." The woman's hand went to a folded-up paper in her pocket, though she didn't open it. "We've got another few minutes."

"You know a lot about them." Mahiro's expression didn't change. "I've been fighting for years, but you see their patterns better."

"Don't sell yourself short. I've got experience myself."

Iori turned his head down to Makoto. "What do you think they're talking about?" he whispered.

"None of it sounds familiar…" Makoto's shoulders slumped. "But it's weird, so it could be related to my memory anyway!"

"Shh," Iori reminded. They went back to watching the senior student and the strange woman.

Mahiro stepped into the light from the window. "Like I said before, I saw somebody different from a normal human. They occasionally appear, but it's usually nothing. Why tell me to call you?"

"Thank you. It's important right now," the woman said. "What kind of different?"

"A spirit, I'm sure." He paused. "Probably an ikiryou."

She nodded. "Thank you. Be careful not to check."

"I know," he said. Pause. "You've been helping me a lot… but you never told me your name."

"That can wait a minute. We've got company." She pointed past him to the corner Makoto and Iori were peeking out from behind.

Mahiro whirled around and went for his sword. Makoto leaped back in surprise with an "auu!", stumbled, reached forward to grab Iori's arm, and ran off in the opposite direction, dragging a panting Iori behind.

Mahiro stared.

"…those weren't demons."

The woman behind him just sighed and shook her head.

* * *

Yuki smiled and closed his math book. "There! Is it any easier now?"

Yuuko finished her last problem and shut her book too. "Not by much," she confessed, "but thanks a lot, Yuki. I'm sorry for taking up your night like this."

"You know I'm happy to help you out," Yuki said. "I did all my work at school, and I want to help you get settled here, like I keep saying. At least we got to take a break for supper."

"True enough," Yuuko said. "Thanks for all the help, Yuki. It's been something, alright, and it's only Tuesday. At least I have someone I know."

Yuki blinked and his face lit up in a soft, relieved smile. "Thank you! I'm going to go take a bath before it gets late – ah, Yuuko, did you want to go first?"

"That's fine. I can wait," Yuuko said. She sat back against the bed. "…Hey, Yuki. Are you sure we didn't know a Makoto back then? When I used to come here more often, I mean."

Yuki shook his head. "I still can't remember. Which is weird, because I remember a lot."

It might have been Yuuko's imagination, but he looked a bit sad. It didn't last, though. Yuki snapped back to his usual sleepy smile.

"Maybe if we had a last name to go on? I'll try to remember for you, Yuuko."

"Thanks." Yuuko waved as Yuki stepped out of the room.

* * *

Makoto rounded another corner, dragging a wheezing Iori and not looking too well himself. They stumbled to slow themselves and collapsed on the floor in a daze.

"I think we lost them." Makoto sprawled out on the floor. "Auuuu…"

Iori's response consisted of struggling gasps as he propped his back up against the wall, sitting on the floor. His heart and lungs finally slowed enough to allow him to speak afterwards. "That… was too much."

Makoto turned his head towards Iori. "Do you not run a lot?"

Iori shook his head with as much vigour as he could manage. "I usually stay in one place."

Makoto shuddered. He pushed himself up with his arms to drag himself into a seated position. "Hey, Iori?"

"What is it?"

Makoto picked his cap off the floor and dusted it off. "What's an ikiryou?"

"It's a type of ghost," Iori said. "Sort of."

Makoto went blue. "Ghost!?"

"Shh!" Iori looked around; no one was there. "It's not exactly a ghost. It's more like the spirit of a person who's alive. That's why it's called a 'living spirit'. An ikiryou is the soul of a person who's alive, but the soul is separated from the body. Kind of like it's being projected out."

"Do they really exist?" Makoto's teeth chattered. He tried to shrug it off with the cold."

"Those people thought so." Iori gave an amused shrug. "There are two different stories I've heard about where ikiryou come from. One is that they're people in comas, or asleep or something – they don't know what's happened to their bodies, but something doesn't add up. If the people around them figure out that the person is an ikiryou, they start to forget, and then they can't see, hear, or touch the person at all. If the _ikiryou _finds out they are one… they disappear!"

He accompanied this with a dramatic flourish. Makoto's "Auuuu!" could be heard across the school building as he covered his head with his hands.

Iori laughed. "Sorry! It's just that I've always wanted to do this. I haven't gotten to tell ghost stories at night with friends in a long time."

"I wasn't scared." Makoto grumbled. He hesitated and put his hat back on. "…What's the other story about where ikiryou come from?"

Iori cleared his throat. "These ones are more dangerous. I've heard that a person can _become_ an ikiryou, on purpose, if they have a strong enough grudge against somebody else! They use magic to separate their soul from their body so they can project themselves somewhere the victim lives, and then they curse them!"

"C-curse?"

Emphatic nod. "You can't get rid of these ones by proving what they are to yourself or to them. After all, they already know. They can even possess you! But keeping up the spell makes them sick and wears away at their body. If they keep it up too long, they can die. Then…" Iori really wished he had a flashlight to illuminate his face. "They're stuck that way _forever!_"

Makoto jumped. "Really?"

"Really." Iori leaned forward, rested enough to do so. "And then they… hey, what's that over there?"

"No way," Makoto said. "I'm not falling for that! You're just trying to scare me again."

"No, seriously!" Iori pointed down the hallway. "What is that?"

Something swished by where Iori had pointed, and Makoto looked. They caught sight only briefly in the window's light. It wasn't the senior student or the woman, they knew, because of the simple fact that it being either of those two meant that it had to be a person. This was more of a shadow or – not even a shadow, like an invisible twisting mass, refracting what light came in through the windows so that you couldn't see it but you could swear you caught the outline of _something_.

It collapsed and expanded and twisted in front of them, sliding around the corner, then looming above before jetting forward at the two.

There was only one proper reaction to this.

"Ikiryou!"

Iori and Makoto scrambled to their feet, or tried; the creature or spirit or whatever it was bowled them down before they stood. They cringed and tried to get back to their feet as the thing doubled back to either look them over or just appear menacing before it could strike again, they didn't know.

"Get down."

The voice of that senior rang through the halls. Mahiro stepped out with his sword ready. Even if up close they could tell it was plastic, the moonlight on the sword almost made it look real. He bent his knees and tightened the grip on his sword.

The thing twisted toward him. He was ready. He arched up and spun, slashing at the thing and actually cutting through it. A sparkle of light or energy or something accompanied every cut. With one last move, he sprang up and brought the sword down before him. The thing dissipated as he landed calmly on his feet.

Iori and Makoto stared.

The older boy stood up and looked at them, still expressionless.

"…That's not an ikiryou. That's a demon. Learning the difference is helpful."

They gulped, nodded, and turned around to run as fast as they could to the nearest exit.

* * *

It had been almost half an hour and Yuki was still in the bath. Yuuko knew she was a guest and a girl and that barging in wouldn't be the smartest idea, but she still had half a mind to go check if her cousin hadn't fallen asleep in there. She wouldn't put it past him, anyway. The other half of her mind was debating just going to bed early. Maybe she'd remember something again, which was more useful than sitting amid piles of finished homework waiting for the bath. Oh, right. She sighed and started to put her books back into her school bag.

The phone rang down the hall from the handset and downstairs from the base in the kitchen. For a second, Yuuko contemplated letting Akio get it, but she might as well make herself useful if she was going to be living here. Besides, answering the phone would give her something to do. "I'll get it," she called, and she uncrossed her legs and rose, then walked to the phone in time to pick it up.

"Thanks for calling. Ai—Minase residence," Yuuko greeted. Mentally, she kicked herself for almost saying "Aizawa".

"Yuuko? Hello." The voice on the other end was male. With other voices talking in the background, it took Yuuko a second to place.

"Kaoru?"

"That's me," said Misaka Kaoru. "Is Yuki available?"

Yuuko leaned against the wall. "Sorry. He's kind of busy. Did you need anything?"

"I just..."

Kaoru trailed off. Yuuko heard rustling and caught a few words from the background conversation; nothing conclusive, though, unless 'haunted', 'always', and 'never mind him' meant anything. A door closed and the voices stopped.

"I needed to talk, that's all. My parents are making a fuss about nothing and there's nothing on TV," Kaoru said.

"I'm up for that." Yuuko shrugged, even if Kaoru couldn't see it over the phone. "Any particular topic you have in mind?"

"Not really." Kaoru paused. "Have you heard about any ghost stories in the school?"

Yuuko raised her eyebrow. "Wait, ghost stories? You mean like Hanako-san the washroom ghost?"

Kaoru scoffed. "Of course not. Just... It's nothing. It's probably just something stupid. Anyway, I'll call Yuki later. I'll see you at school."

The phone clicked and rang its dial tone. Yuuko hung up from her end and stood up straight.

"Whatever all that was about..."


	5. Opinions Are Like -

_Dream... a dream, huh?_

_Dreams don't usually make any sense, but that's only when you're looking back on them. When they're going on, everything makes sense to you. You grow wings and fly to school, and all you think is, "This is more convenient than walking through the snow." Or you suddenly get pantsed during your presentation at school and everybody laughs at you, and it never occurs to you that you weren't even wearing pants before because your school uniform is a dress. Then you wake up and start thinking, "What is wrong with my brain?" or "I need to stop eating weird things before bed."_

_Real life is more of the opposite. Dreams make less sense when they're over, but with life, you go through everything missing the details, and then you look back and understand more, and you wonder why you were such an idiot._

* * *

It was cold again on Wednesday. Ayumu pulled his coat more tightly around him, breathed in through his nose and out through his mouth, and forced every step up the hill to school. More than once, he considered just skipping school today. He could, and they wouldn't care. People did it all the time. Still, school was fun, he decided. More fun than home, anyway. The forest thickened and blocked the wind, and Ayumu breathed in and looked up the path.

At the same time, Yuuko and Yuki were making their way down their usual path to school. Well, Yuuko was, and Yuki was sleepwalking towards the road. Yuuko grabbed the back of his jacket and tugged him back onto the sidewalk.

"Wha?" Yuki's eyes snapped open and his breath caught in his throat. He looked behind him at Yuuko sighing and shaking her head, and he relaxed.

"Watch for cars." Yuuko let go of his jacket. "The last thing I want is to have to explain to Akio-san why his son has thirty broken bones."

Yuki lightly bopped himself on the head. "Sorry. I'm just really tired this morning..."

"You're tired every morning," Yuuko said. "What time did you go to bed?"

Yuki thought. "Hmm... about eight or so. Normal time."

"Eight is the furthest thing from normal. The fact that you're still asleep is even weirder. Sometimes I wonder about you."

"Maybe I should get more alarms!"

Yuuko thought back to Yuki's room, every shelf littered with alarm clocks of all kinds, and groaned. "Let's not and say we did."

"Hey, Aizawa! Minase!"

Kitagawa Junri's voice carried down the hill as she ran down to catch up with them. She fell in step beside Yuki and waved.

"Morning, Kitagawa," Yuuko said. "You're cheery for a miserable day like this."

Junri twirled one of her pigtails sheepishly. "Well, it's not_ that_ cold. It sucks now, but it's supposed to get up to minus fifteen today."

"Only? Minus fifteen is bad enough," said Kaoru as he stepped in between the girls. "Good morning."

"Good mornyuu..." Yuki's eyes closed again and he began to nod off.

"Oh, come on!" Yuuko shook him awake and dragged him along. "Who falls asleep standing?"

Kaoru laughed. "It looks like you two are having fun."

Yuuko set Yuki back walking forward down the sidewalk, let go, and turned back to Kaoru. "That's one way to put it."

Kaoru leaned in closer to Yuuko and lowered his voice. "Don't mention what we talked about last night to anyone," he whispered. "All right?"

"Whaaaaaaaaaat?" Junri was leaning in as close as she could get to listen in. She pulled back and started flailing her arms and pointing at the both of them. "Aizawa, you've got some sort of secret conspiracy with Kaoru? He asked you out, didn't he? You told me you didn't want to date him! Come on, be honest!"

Kaoru twitched. "Idiot."

Junri sniffled. "K-Kaoru..."

Yuuko thought for a moment and looked at her with a soft, assured smile, the kind one would see in a shoujo manga surrounded by bubbles and a pastel backdrop with a lily border.

"Don't worry about it, Kitagawa," she said with a serene tone. "We were just discussing Kaoru's embarrassing rash."

Junri stared. "Huh?"

_Kaoru _stared. "Aizawa..."

"It's a terrible, tragic tale. So I could never talk about it or risk harming poor Kaoru's reputation and health for the rest of his natural life." Yuuko winked at Kaoru and turned away so neither of them could see how she was fighting the temptation to burst out laughing.

Yuki rubbed his eyes. "There are creams for that at the store..."

Junri grabbed onto Kaoru's sleeve with both hands. "Kaoru, why didn't you confide in me?"

Kaoru shook his arm. "_She_ is full of it. Get off."

Still, between annoyed grumbles and twitching eyes, he sent Yuuko a quick look of relief.

* * *

Even so, Kaoru quickly excused himself from the room at lunch, insisting that he had to do 'class rep things'. Whatever that entailed. Yuuko thus had only Yuki and Junri accompanying her to lunch today. As they stepped out of the school into the sunshine sparkling off the snow, Yuuko quickly pulled her coat over herself.

"So what possessed you guys to want to eat outside, again?" she asked.

"Come on. It's beautiful out!" Junri patted Yuuko on the back. "You're just not used to being here yet."

"I'm getting there," Yuuko said. "It's just that nobody warned me that I was moving to the North Pole."

Yuki followed the two of them, carrying three homemade lunch boxes. "She doesn't remember a lot about when she used to come here before. Be nice to her," he reminded. "How about aside from the weather? Are you getting used to school?"

"The work still doesn't make much sense," Yuuko confessed. "I've never been good at that, though. I wish there were a school with no homework at all, but I doubt that will be happening any time soon."

The wind took that opportunity to pick up. Yuuko clung to her sides and her long coat and Yuki held the lunch boxes tightly. Junri immediately went to push down the skirt of her uniform dress, only to be smacked in the face with something flying. And soft. The other two watched as she flailed around with a brown plaid blanket covering her face until she fell backwards into the snow.

"Owww," she said, sitting up and rubbing her snow-caked back. She immediately brought her legs together and picked up the mystery blanket before springing up. "Nobody saw that, right?"

"You have snow all over you," Yuki said in mild awe. "It's in your hair, too."

"No way!" Junri tucked the blanket under her arm and started to try and brush the snow off of her clothes and hair. "This is just not my day. And I was in a great mood this morning, too!"

"At least you're not actually hurt or anything... Wait a second." Yuuko raised her eyebrow. "I've seen that blanket before."

"That's because you pulled it out of a tree." It was a new voice, and the trio turned around to find its owner. A boy with a white sweater and brown hair standing on end smiled and held out his hands. "Could I have that back, please?"

"Oh, right! Sorry!" Junri dusted off the blanket, quickly folded it, and placed it in the newcomer's hands. She turned and whispered. "Yuuko, do you know this guy?"

"Barely," Yuuko replied. She indicated him with a nod. "Iori-san, right? Where's your friend?"

"Oh, Makoto got hungry. I lent him some money to get us something to eat." Iori unfolded the blanket and wrapped it around his shoulders. "I'm just waiting here, but I don't mind that. I do a lot of waiting anyway. What do you three have for lunch?"

Yuuko shrugged. "Yuki, what did they give you?"

Yuki started shuffling around the lunch boxes to try to peek in and check. "Let's see, uh, this one has fried shrimp and I think there's lettuce in there... and..."

"Never mind, we can check when we sit down." Yuuko looked back at Iori. "Yuki got a couple of lunch boxes from his fangirls. I guess he's popular with the first-years. He was nice enough to share them with us."

Yuki was starting to turn pink from the cold. _Ha_, Yuuko thought, _I knew it was too cold to be outside_.

He readjusted his grip on the boxes. "I couldn't just tell them no..."

Iori laughed. "It looks like your life is interesting."

Yuuko rested a hand on her hip. "Yours looks pretty interesting, too, you know. I keep seeing you out the window, ditching school with that guy who wants my head on a pike for some grudge he won't tell me about. Neither of you even gives your last names out. What's with that?"

"Yuuko, that's a little..." Yuki began.

Iori waved his hand. "Don't worry! She's right, you know. I don't mind." He looked off at the school building and smiled. "It's cooler to be mysterious, isn't it?"

"Iori!" Makoto's voice rang from around the corner of the school building. "Iori, there were these great things called meat buns and they smelled so good I got a dozen and..."

"I should go." Iori bowed and turned to leave. He gave one last smile over his shoulder before walking away.

Yuuko watched after him as he left. She sighed. "Cool, huh? I wouldn't be so sure."

"Don't be such a killjoy, Aizawa." Junri clasped her hands. "I mean, doesn't it just make you want to find out who they are?"

Yuki hesitated before looking to find someplace to sit.

* * *

Considering that she already knew that Makoto would be in the area, Yuuko would have thought that maybe he would have realized that his element of surprise was nonexistent and retreat for a better opportunity to ambush her again.

Apparently not, she mused as she and Yuki approached the door to leave school for the day. There he was, poorly hidden behind the edge of the door, lying in wait with a bucket in his arms. She could even hear him laughing to himself as she got closer. It was hard enough not to roll her eyes.

Yuuko stepped over so that she would be in between Yuki and Makoto when they exited. She kept an eye in Makoto's direction, but nodded at Yuki. "So... how about that homework?"

"Huh?" Yuki blinked cluelessly. "I guess it's just normal..."

Yuuko gave a devious grin and approached the door. "Yup. Just normal. Just like everything else today, and there definitely isn't somebody right outside the door waiting to BEEEEEHHHHHHH!" As soon as she took the first step out next to Makoto, she spun on her heels and jumped at him, waving her arms and making a face ripped from a cheap horror movie.

"Auuuuu!" Makoto flailed and stumbled back. The bucket went flying up in a glorious spin. Freezing water cascaded out in falls with each rotation and splashed right onto Makoto's head. His eyes went wide. His arm-waving frenzy only went faster, and his face started to look blue. The bucket crash-landed in a bush, knocking the snow off the branches.

Yuki blinked. "The other person from yesterday..."

"Y-y-you!" Makoto shuddered and pointed in Yuuko's face. "Why would you scare me like that?"

Yuuko crossed her arms and smirked. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe I saw a horrible, monstrous beast laying in ambush outside the school with a pail of freezing water, and I knew he had a grudge against me and would find throwing it at me justified for some reason."

"Auu! Just you wait, I'm going to get you back one of these days!" Makoto wiped water off of his face with his sleeve and wrung out his hat. The water landed in the snow, denting it like something dropped on the ground would reveal a sinkhole.

Yuuko sighed. "Go dry off. You're going to get sick like that. Look at you, you're forming icicles." She gestured inside the school. "There are showers in the gym locker rooms, and they probably have towels, too."

Makoto immediately jumped back. He looked at the school building with a tremble, took a deep breath, and bolted in the opposite direction.

Yuuko blinked, looked at Yuki, and shrugged.

"That was weird."

They continued on their way. It was almost automatic now to walk home through the shopping district, even if neither of them had anything to pick up. Naturally, Yuuko's thoughts turned to their previous excursions, and no sooner had that happened...

"Yuukooooo!"

Her dodging instincts kicked in instantly this time. She spun around and ducked to the side. Yuki watched and slowly blinked as Tsukimiya Ayumu ran at full speed and crashed, doubling over a grit box on the sidewalk.

"Oww... uguu." Ayumu pulled himself to his feet and held his stomach. He turned to face the two of them and rubbed his nose. "Yuuko, you dodged!"

Yuuko stood up and sighed. "Uh, yeah. I've got a little condition called a self-preservation instinct that kicks in when somebody's running toward me like a speeding car. You're not hurt, are you?"

"Uguu... Of course I am." Ayumu grumbled. "It was supposed to be our dramatic reunion!"

"I've still got swelling on the back of my head from our last dramatic reunion." Yuuko shook her head. "Yuki and I were just going home. Are you looking for your lost item again?"

Yuki hesitated. "It sounds like this is just between you two, but... ah. You lost something?"

Ayumu nodded. "Uh-huh. I can't remember what it is, but I know I have to find it!"

"Convenient amnesia," Yuuko said with a shrug. "It's like this town's version of the winter flu."

Yuki laughed and shook his head. "I don't really think it's as common as the flu."

"Oh, I don't know," Yuuko said. "There's me, Ayumu can't remember what he dropped or where it is, and then there's that Makoto guy. I wouldn't be surprised if even you couldn't remember something and you just forgot that you forgot it."

"That's a bit confusing," Yuki said.

"I don't get it either," Ayumu said.

Yuuko sighed. "You guys are two of a kind, I swear. You know, Ayumu, I should introduce you to our other friends. I mean, you and Yuki already get along. Maybe Kitagawa would stop going on about every girl in sight trying to steal Kaoru if we had more guys around instead, too."

Yuki brightened. "That's a great idea! I'm really glad you already consider us all to be your friends, too, when it hasn't even been a week."

"Of course I'll meet you again!" Ayumu threw his arms in the air. "We've met up so many times already, it's probably fate!"

"Fate or coincidence," Yuuko thought aloud.

"Nope, definitely fate." Ayumu pulled off his left glove and held out his hand, pinky outstretched. "I'll meet you tomorrow, too. Pinky swear?"

Yuuko blinked. "We're not ten anymore, Ayumu. If I say I'm going to meet you tomorrow, I will."

"Uguu..." Ayumu slumped. "If you won't pinky swear, how am I supposed to know you'll be there?"

"I think it sounds fun!" Yuki held out his pinky. "Here, I'll promise, Ayumu-kun!"

"Okay..." They linked fingers and shook like they were kids again. Yuuko blinked and her head shot back slightly, watching them recite the promise and smile as they broke hands.

"O-okay, fine." Yuuko's words echoed on the cold street. For a second, she wasn't even aware of all the other people passing by through the shopping district. "Hold out your hand, Ayumu."

"You'll do it?" Ayumu turned to Yuuko and held his pinky out expectantly.

"Yeah, sure." Yuuko sighed and reached her right hand out. She stopped in front of Ayumu's left hand, pulled back, and offered out her left instead. "There."

Ayumu linked fingers with Yuuko and beamed. "Here tomorrow, promise!"

"Yeah..." Yuuko smiled a little. "It's a promise."

They lingered for a while – it must have only been a few seconds. As soon as they let go, Yuuko's warmth drained. A cold breeze blew through the street and bit at her red hand. She slowly drew it back and stared forward over Ayumu's head.

"Okay, so I'll see you later!" Ayumu paused. "Yuuko? What's wrong?"

"Are you feeling well, Yuuko?" Yuki cut in.

Yuuko shivered and blinked herself alert. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Let's go home, Yuki. Supper should be any minute."

They parted with Ayumu and walked on. Yuuko kept silent the whole way to Akio's house.

* * *

The next few days went similarly. Class went on, homework was assigned, Yuuko struggled through said homework but Yuki helped her out... or just let her copy off him when she asked. The group, or permutations of it, occasionally sat together at lunch or walked to and from school together. Sometimes Kaoru had class rep duties and couldn't come, or he went with Yuki to watch his track practice, or Junri had student council meetings, so they hadn't all been there every day. In fact, Kaoru hadn't been there at lunch since the day the rest of them had met Iori. The second that class was let out, Kaoru immediately had to be somewhere.

That wasn't uncommon, Yuki said, but usually Junri would be hanging around wherever he was waiting for him to get out, and then Yuki ended up sitting with the track team. With Yuuko around, though, they felt more like a group. They had lunch together for the rest of the week. They did have lunch passes for the cafeteria, but with all the dinner leftovers at home, Yuki brought forward the idea of bringing boxed lunches again. Reluctantly, Yuuko agreed. Akio-san's cooking was great, but boxed lunches led to going outside, and going outside led to freezing, and freezing led to Iori, and Iori led to Makoto.

It wasn't all that bad, really. Though his buddy hadn't learned from getting a bucket of water dumped on his head, Iori himself was easy to get along with. Junri was already chatting him up every lunch hour and blissfully ignoring the cold.

"So I've been thinking of getting a new phone," she said between bites of carrot rice. "Like, a cell phone. Lots of people are starting to get them, and they've got a lot of new kinds these days. Like those ones that take pictures!"

"I don't even have a cell phone," Yuuko sighed. "I don't really need one."

"It might be useful," Yuki mused, sitting at the end of the row. "I don't know much about them, though."

"You guys aren't any help." Junri swallowed another mouthful of rice. "What do you think, Iori?"

"It's a great idea!" Iori smiled. "I know new technology is expensive, but it's going to be a new millennium, after all, and a lot of things are developing pretty quickly. You might get left behind otherwise. I think a phone with a camera would be worth it. Do you want any recommendations on cell phone games?"

"I know _I'm _left behind," Yuuko commented. "Who knew you were so into this stuff, Iori?"

He turned to her, keeping that same calm smile. "I have a few different hobbies. Oh, welcome back, Makoto!"

Yuuko turned around. Makoto was indeed looming behind her bench with a heap of snow in his hands. At being noticed, he sprung back a few steps, dropping the snow onto the ground, and nearly fell into the bushes again. He growled and wiped the leftover snowflakes from his hands onto the front of his pants.

"Why'd you have to do that, Iori?" He grumbled. "I almost had her!"

"Almost had me for what?" Yuuko leaned one arm back against the bench she was sitting on.

Makoto stood up straight. "I – that is – uh, well..."

Yuuko's head inclined to the pile of snow on top of the already thick ground cover. "The bucket of water didn't work, throwing snowballs at the classroom window didn't work, leaving a banana peel outside the door didn't work and I don't know how you ever thought that was a good idea to begin with, and now you're trying to dump snow down my back. If you're trying to get revenge on me for who-knows-what, you obviously need better ideas."

"Auu... I'll get you!" Makoto lunged over the top of the bench enough to yank Yuki's chopsticks out of his hand as he was falling asleep sitting, grab a meatball out of Yuuko's lunch box, and triumphantly drop it into his mouth.

"Hey, wait a second!" Yuuko picked up her lunch box and stood up to stand off with Makoto. "I was saving those!"

"It serves you right for being an idiot who thinks she'll get her way all the time!" Makoto stuck his tongue out and tried reaching for the lunch box again.

The two of them began chasing each other around the bench with raised voices. Iori shook his head and laughed.

"Life is a lot more interesting these days, isn't it?"

Junri looked around to see if he was talking to anyone else. She nodded sheepishly. "I guess so. Kaoru's always so busy lately, so this is better than eating alone outside wherever he's having a meeting."

Iori paused. "This Kaoru... Is he your boyfriend or something?"

"Of course he—" Junri deflated. "I wish."

"Sometimes it's hard to be noticed," Iori said, not unsympathetically. He paused and smiled as Makoto made another lunge for Yuuko's food. "Having Makoto around made life more fun, and it introduced me to all of you, too."

"Do you know who he is?" Junri asked. "I mean, he has no memories, right?"

Iori shook his head. "I don't know where he came from, but we're friends. I know he keeps following Yuuko-san because she's the only memory he's got, and I want to help him out, too."

"It's a good idea, in theory," Junri said. She looked over to Yuki. "What do you think?"

"Zzz," Yuki said.

* * *

All those days, too, Yuuko kept meeting up with Ayumu after school. Sometimes Yuki was there, and one time Junri and Kaoru were too, but this time, it was just Yuuko. Yuki had track practice, he explained, and he'd be home late. Kaoru went to watch Yuki, and Junri, presumably, went to watch Kaoru. Yuuko almost thought of going with them, but decided in the end that seeing Ayumu in the shopping district counted as a prior obligation.

"You don't have to come see me every day," Ayumu said after hearing this. "You'll get bored."

"Yeah, but what will you do?" Yuuko poked him in the head on his red bandanna. "Go on a rampant thieving spree, no doubt. You might even make the news. 'Grand Theft Taiyaki'."

"Uguu!" He crossed his arms. "I would not!"

Yuuko smirked. "Maybe. I'll say this much: you're less trouble than that Makoto guy right now."

"You mean the guy who has something against you?" Ayumu asked.

"The same. He keeps trying these stupid pranks on me. Dumping snow down my collar? Really?" Yuuko rolled her eyes. "At least he doesn't know where I live. The last thing I need is somebody ordering me twelve pizzas a night and sending black faxes."

"I wonder what his problem is," Ayumu said. "You said even he didn't know."

"Yup," Yuuko replied. "Like I said on Wednesday. Every other person I meet can't remember something important, myself included. But hey, maybe you'll start remembering things like I have." She left off the fact that she hadn't had any of those weird dreams in a while. If they were important, they'd probably come back, anyway.

"I still haven't found my lost item," Ayumu said. "I've almost searched the whole shopping district, and I'm not sure where to look after that. I was looking in the train station when I first met you a week ago."

Yuuko counted on her fingers. "Oh, right... Saturday. Yeah, it has been a week." She rubbed her hands together to stave off the cold. "Still don't know what it is you lost?"

"No," he said.

She clapped her hands. "How about I ask you some questions? All right, first of all: animal, vegetable, or mineral?"

Ayumu scratched his head. "I don't think it's any of those things."

"Plastic, then?"

"I don't think so..."

"There's nothing left after that."

Something shuffled behind them.

"Uguu..." Ayumu sighed. "I guess I have to think about it."

"No kidding." Yuuko suddenly stopped walking. She lowered her voice. "Do you hear that?"

The shuffling stopped right then. They slowly turned around and stared down.

There was a large cardboard box directly behind them where there hadn't been one before. A slightly moving one.

Yuuko facepalmed. "Oh, for..."

Ayumu looked at her. "What is it?"

"I think I know."

She feigned inspecting the box, shrugged, and promptly sat on it. A grunt emerged, but the box did nothing. Yuuko found it hard not to laugh.

"Convenient seating." She reached up to pull Ayumu down by the arm. "Come on, Ayumu, sit down."

"Whoa!" He wobbled but sat down uncomfortably on the other half of the box, with Yuuko making room for him. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Absolutely," Yuuko said, struggling to bite back her laughter now. "After all, it's juuuust a box. Nothing suspicious. Definitely not the raving weirdo who's been stalking me with stupid pranks for the past week, nope. Just a box."

The box shook violently under them.

"GET OFF OF ME BEFORE YOU CRUSH ME, YOU STUPID UGLY COW!"

Ayumu immediately jumped off. Yuuko burst out into a fit of laughs and needed Ayumu's help getting up while doubled over and pointing. Makoto flung the box into the street and fumed at the two of them. Yuuko gasped for enough breath to regain some semblance of composure.

"Called it," she said, before falling into peals of laughter again.

"Ohh..." Makoto crossed his arms and glared. "Whatever you did to make me hate you, now I know it must have been horrible!"

Ayumu hesitated and waved. "Hello! I guess you're Makoto-san, right? My name is Tsukimiya Ayumu!"

Makoto stood startled, off guard for a moment. "Uh... hi."

Yuuko sighed. "Makoto, Ayumu. Ayumu, Makoto. Now, Mr. Mystery Grudge, what are you even doing stalking me now? Where'd Iori go?"

"For your information, Iori went home after lunch because he felt sick. He probably caught something from your stupidity." Makoto felt proud of himself, though Yuuko's unimpressed look didn't exactly say that he'd done well.

"That only answers half the question," Yuuko said. "Why do you keep hanging around me if you hate me so much?"

Makoto hesitated. He looked at the ground.

"Because you're the only clue I have," he said.

Yuuko paused. "Uh, what?"

"You're the first person I remembered," he explained. "I took one look at your stupid face and thought, _She's done something to make me hate her more than anything! _Even before I remembered my name, I knew I hated you. Maybe if I stay around you, I'll remember who I am."

"Does that really make me obligated to humour a random nutbar with a grudge?" Yuuko asked.

"You're helping me remember my lost item," Ayumu reminded.

Yuuko sighed. "I've got enough on my plate with my own memory problems..."

She looked back at Makoto. He was hugging himself and looking down and back to her with pleading eyes, like a dog trying to negotiate with sympathetic looks because it knew it was going to get yelled at for peeing on the rug or barking at the neighbours.

"...But I might as well help," she finished. "As long as you're not being a pain."

Makoto stiffened. "You're the pain!"

"You're not helping your case," she said, already beginning to walk away.

"Ohhh... Get back here!"

Makoto growled and leapt at Yuuko.

She dodged to the right this time. As he started to fly past her, she stuck her leg out into his path. He tripped, stumbled, and fell through the curtain of the photo booth in front of the store. There was a crash inside, followed by some undignified groaning.

"Serves you right." Yuuko pulled open the curtain with a sigh. "Here, let me help you with that."

Soon enough, Makoto was untangled from the curtain and caught his breath from being winded by the stool inside. He rubbed his stomach where he'd landed hard on the stool and looked the offending booth over.

"What is that, anyway?"

"It's a print club booth." Yuuko raised an eyebrow. "You've never heard of them?"

"It's where you put in money and it takes pictures of you! They're fun." Ayumu dragged Makoto by the arm back into the booth. "Let's try it!"

"You realize these are mostly popular with girls and little kids..." Yuuko trailed off and shook her head. "Hey, who am I to decide what anyone else should like, anyway? You can do whatever you want. That is, if either of you actually has money."

"I do have money!" Makoto pulled out his wallet and triumphantly took out the two hundred yen the machine called for. "I found it on the ground two days ago."

Yuuko facepalmed. "All right, go ahead."

Makoto inserted the coin and they closed the curtain. Yuuko heard them selecting a background and shuffling in the booth, and twice, the click of the camera.

She smirked, grabbed the corner of the curtain, and flung it open before jumping in the path of the camera. The next picture had Ayumu jumping back, Makoto raging, and Yuuko making a face at the screen. Makoto went to push her out. Ayumu caught her arm and pulled her back in. The camera went off for the fourth and final picture, and they heard it print the photo strip outside.

Makoto whirled on Yuuko. "What was that for?"

Yuuko crossed her arms and leaned forward. "Are you kidding me?"

Ayumu waved his arms. "Uguu! Don't fight in here!"

Makoto stepped back, halfway through the curtain, and hesitated. He took a deep breath.

"I'll get my revenge on you next time for sure, you stupid, drooling, picture-ruining pig-face!" He ran off out of the photo booth and down the street.

Yuuko shook her head. "First I'm a cow, now I'm a pig-face. Maybe he was born in a barn."

Ayumu sighed. "Aww, man... For a second there, it was almost like we were all friends. Even when you jumped into the picture. It was just something people would do if they wanted to have fun with their friends."

"That would be preferable, anyway." Yuuko lifted the curtain and stepped out of the print club booth. She picked up the strip of photos in the deposit.

Ayumu followed. His eyes went to the photos in her hand. "He left them behind..."

Yuuko sighed out frozen white breath. She tucked the photo strip into the big pocket of her jacket.

"I'll give them back when he shows up again."

* * *

Yuuko arrived home from the shopping district within minutes of Yuki coming home from track practice. The good news was that Akio had made stew. The other side of that news was that Akio had made entirely too much.

Yuki looked this way and that at the large pot in the middle of the table. He was on his second helping, Akio and Yuuko had also had some, and the pot still had plenty in it.

"Are we going to eat this for the rest of the week?"

Akio rested a hand up by his face. "I suppose I did make too much. There were a lot of vegetables after your last few trips to the store, and I thought I should use them all up."

Yuuko finished a spoonful and inclined her head. "Maybe I'll take the leftovers to Makoto."

Akio spooned some more out and laughed softly.

"You still remember that? It was really too bad..."

At once, Yuuko's eyes widened. She nearly dropped her spoon. Even sleepy Yuki sat up with a start. They looked at each other, then at Akio, and pushed their chairs back at the same time.

"Excuse us from the table for a moment!"

They stood up and rushed out of the kitchen and around the corner without even waiting for Akio's confused reply. Yuuko quieted her voice and looked at Yuki.

"Akio-san remembers Makoto?"

"I guess so." Yuki gave a confused shrug and a tilt of the head. "That's weird, because I don't remember seeing him when you used to come here at all. Should we ask Dad about what he knows?"

Yuuko considered it and sighed. "Not right now. I need to think on this. At least now I know he's not lying, but... Well, if I don't remember, I'll ask Akio-san. I don't want to bother him otherwise."

Yuki smiled. "At least we're a bit closer."

* * *

It wasn't uncommon for Misaka Kaoru to walk home late. Supper might have already started without him. That was all right. He'd just grab what was left over and lock himself in his room. He overheard his parents once talk about how it wasn't really a problem, most teenage boys did that anyway. That was true, even if most teenage boys weren't in Kaoru's situation. He knew that the... other family issue was more pressing to them, anyway.

He made his way out of the school at lights out and started walking down the front walk towards the gate outside the school. The maintenance people were already coming to close the gate, and he picked up his pace to exit.

_Wait._

Kaoru paused. That wasn't a maintenance worker standing by the gate. Maintenance workers wouldn't be wearing the school uniform. As he approached, he looked over the person standing there. It was a boy a little shorter than he was, with slightly curled, dark hair – it looked red, but that might have just been the light from the street lamp. He looked up at Kaoru impassively.

"Misaka Kaoru?"

Kaoru stopped for a second mid-exit. He turned to look at the shorter boy. "Do I know you?"

"Not particularly." Shrug.

Kaoru frowned. His mind cycled through all the students in his class, then in his grade, then the people he saw in the halls every day. It stopped on one.

"You're that first-year," he said, hand up to his chin. "Amano Mitsuo-san. Am I right?"

He nodded. "I've just got a warning for you. You've got someone new staying in your house, right?"

The boy with the red cap who was always eating. That friend his – _he_ brought home off the street. How could Amano know about that?

"You've got the wrong person," Kaoru said. He began to walk away. "I don't know anyone like that."

Mitsuo followed a few steps behind him. Kaoru sped up.

"I just have one thing to say," Mitsuo said as they moved between pools of light from the street lamps. "Don't talk to him. Don't get attached. You'll thank me."

Kaoru stopped cold and spun around with a glare that cut through the ice. Mitsuo halted, still expressionless. They stared at each other, neither moving. Kaoru finally turned and walked off. He made it down the rest of the street and turned the corner, and checking over his shoulder, surmised that he wasn't being followed. He sighed and put his hand out to steady himself against a brick wall.

"Tell someone who doesn't know."


	6. Flowers of Fire

_Dream... I had a dream._

_Of course I still have dreams that I tell the parents and teachers buzzing around to shut them up. Dreams like "I want to keep getting top marks," "I want to be a prosecutor," "I want to be an office worker with a family." All the things people want their children to grow up to be so that they'll be rich, not famous, just fitting into a nice slot to have a nice life where nothing bad ever happens. The sad thing is that people tell you 'then you'll be a success,' but not really. The dreams that fly out of reach of almost every person don't make you a success. They're the bare minimum. They just make you a nice, normal person like your parents wish they could have been._

_You know because you hear them whispering to themselves about why they deserved this._

* * *

Misaka Kaoru walked quickly home through the snow. He approached the gate around his house and looked at the nameplate. The wind had caked some snow onto it and parts of the names had been blotted out. He quickly wiped off the snow at the top to reveal his father's and mother's names, hesitated, and cleaned off the snow over his own name.

The final name stayed covered. Nobody else needed to know what it was.

Kaoru pulled open the gate, locked it behind him, and went inside. He removed his boots and walked purposefully to the kitchen and its leftovers. Leftovers that an orange-haired boy in a red military cap was currently helping himself to.

"Get out of there," Kaoru said without looking at Makoto. "The leftovers are mine."

"I'm hungry!" Makoto pulled back his plate with his share of the food. "There's enough for everyone, you know. You don't have to be so selfish."

Kaoru grabbed a plate and set to work grabbing as much food as he could without getting too close to the invader. "I'm not the selfish one. Just because my parents are letting you stay here doesn't mean you can have the run of the house." He turned around and walked out of the kitchen.

"Hey!" Makoto called after. "You could act like I'm actually here, you know!"

Kaoru ignored him. It was ridiculous. Of course he couldn't.

"...welcome home, Kaoru," came a hesitant voice from a person who wasn't there in the doorway of an unoccupied bedroom.

Kaoru walked past the ghost without looking, turned at his own room, and closed the door behind him once he was in. That was all he – it was. That was all Kaoru needed to acknowledge. He didn't have a brother named Iori. He didn't have someone living in the house with him and his parents, taking up space at the table, talking about dreams of going back to school, dragging in homeless kids off the street. When the thought closed in on him that he did have a brother, he knew how to push it back.

_In a couple of weeks, it won't matter anyway.  
_

* * *

Yuuko stayed behind after supper to wash dishes. Akio was drying the ones she washed and putting them away, with the radio barely on in the background.

He smiled down at her. "It's nice to have you helping, even if you're a guest. You don't have to."

"I'm not much of a guest if I'm going to be staying here a year and a half," Yuuko said. "Or longer, depending. Yuki said I was going to be here from now on when I first got here. I think he's convinced I'm going to be here forever."

"I'm glad you're getting along." Akio smiled and set the washable pieces of the slow cooker to air-dry. "It sounds like life has been interesting for you."

"Yeah, lately." Yuuko paused and looked over at Akio. "Earlier, you mentioned something. Akio-san, what do you remember about a guy named Makoto? Someone I used to know when I came here before?"

Akio put a hand to the side of his face. "Well, at supper, we were talking about the fox, weren't we?"

"Fox?"

Yuuko thought. A fuzzy image came into her brain of a fox cub playing around the Minase family's backyard, chasing a butterfly. She smiled without realizing.

"I remember," Akio said. "You always thought that I didn't know about the fox you were keeping in the shed, but Yuki had an allergic reaction when he went out there. The fox seemed very tame, though. He even played with the bells on my keychain." He smiled sadly. "I hope he was alright when you put him back in the wild."

"A fox, huh..." Yuuko sighed and scrubbed a pot. "I guess it's a dead end. Sorry, Akio-san, I was actually asking about a person."

Akio seemed to hesitate, pausing for a moment as he was setting dishes into their place in the cupboard.

"Was it Sawatari Makoto-san?"

Yuuko looked over. "Sawatari?"

He nodded. "He was a bit older than you were. He used to live a few streets away, but he's moved out since then. His younger sister used to play with you and Yuki."

Yuuko thought. _Older, huh? The Makoto I know looks younger, but then again, you can't really guess how old someone is. Ayumu and I are the same age, but he's a head shorter than I am and goes 'uguu' like he's trying to get it to catch on. Makoto might just seem younger since he hangs around with a first-year. At least, I think Iori said he was a first-year._

"Hm. ...Well, it's something to go on. I might as well go with it." Yuuko finished her last dish, rinsed it, and drained the sink. "Thanks a lot, Akio-san. I owe you."

"I'm glad to be of help. If something's bothering you, you can tell me." Akio smiled and gently closed the cupboard door. He waved Yuuko off as she went up the stairs. Once she was out of sight, he leaned his hand on the cupboard door for support and sighed.

* * *

That night, the dreams came back. Yuuko was a child again, kneeling in the Minase house's backyard in the warm spring sun. The fox cub rolled around in the grass in front of her.

She laughed. "We have to be careful. You're not really supposed to take care of wild animals, you know. Plus Yuki will want to pet you, and then he's gonna get sick."

The fox rolled onto his stomach and peered up at her. "Auu?"

Yuuko picked a strand of wheatgrass from the lawn and waved it in front of the fox. He batted and pawed at it as she giggled.

"You know, I need to tell you about Makoto-san," she said.

The fox's ears perked up. "Auu!"

"No, not you." Yuuko laughed. "Sawatari-san's older brother from down the street. He said hi to me today and he even shared his lunch with us!"

Makoto the fox mouthed in the air to catch the blade of wheatgrass. As the girl let go, the fox cub started chewing on it. Yuuko sighed contentedly.

* * *

"Morning~ It's morning~ Time to eat breakfast and go to school~"

"Mmrf," Yuuko replied from her bundle of bedsheets. She reached out an arm and patted the nightstand until she hit the snooze button on the egg-shaped alarm clock. She had found her own alarm clock in the moving boxes by this time, but after deliberation, had decided to lend it to the cause and place it among the army of alarm clocks in Yuki's room. It was a lot louder than this droning egg that Yuki had recorded his voice onto. That just made her want to go back to sleep.

Which she should, Yuuko told herself. It was Sunday. There was no school today and nowhere she particularly needed to be. Satisfied with this knowledge, she pulled her arm back into the bed and snuggled into the mattress contentedly.

This lasted about five minutes.

"Morning~ It's morning~"

This time, Yuuko bothered to open her eyes and pull the alarm clock over to her so she could find the switch to turn it off. With that flipped and the obnoxious plastic egg deposited back on the nightstand, she curled up for sleep again, muttering obscenities.

It was ten o'clock when she dragged herself out of bed. She shambled down to the kitchen and yawned, still in her pilled grey sweatsuit. Akio and Yuki were waiting with smiles in the cooking area when Yuuko went to put bread into the toaster.

Yuuko rubbed her eyes and blinked. "Yuki, you're awake. On a Sunday, at that. Did you have track or something?"

"I did," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "I just got home. I was planning to rest for a while..."

"I woke him up early because we didn't want to disturb you with the alarms on your day off," Akio explained. "You must be hungry."

"Yeah, thanks." Yuuko grabbed her toast when it popped up and took it to the table. She sat down to eat it plain.

Akio pulled back from going for the condiments. "Oh, Yuuko, why don't you eat your toast with jam or powdered sugar?"

"I'm fine with it plain," she said. "Just because I'm a girl, it doesn't mean I love sweet things all of a sudden. Look at Yuki, he's a guy and he eats your strawberry jam every morning."

"It's really good," Yuki said, lightly knocking the side of his own head.

"I see..." Akio paused. "Well, I do make one jam that isn't sweet. Would you like to try some?" He reached into the fridge for a jar.

Yuki's eyes snapped right open. He scrambled to stand in between Akio and the kitchen table.

"Dad! Dad, weren't you going to call Satoshi-san about the baking today?" He pumped his arms a little. "You said you were going to talk about something important, and doesn't Akine-san need to buy more preserves?"

Akio paused and pulled back. "Ah, you're right..." He closed the refrigerator door. "It's too bad. Maybe next time. But, you know, it's there if you need it."

Yuuko raised her eyebrow at the scene. Either it was her imagination or Yuki let out a small sigh of relief.

Akio picked up something from the counter on the way to the phone. "Oh, that's right. I received some movie passes yesterday, but I'm busy today. Would you two like them? It would be something to do on your day off."

Yuuko got up and cleared her place. "Are you sure? It sounds fun, but I don't want you missing out on my account."

"Oh, it's fine. I'd take the two of you if I had a third, anyway." He smiled. "Yuki?"

Yuki looked at his cousin and then back at his father. "Really? Thank you! Should we go today, Yuuko?"

"Don't see why not."

* * *

The question when they got there, of course, was which of the assortment of movies listed on the marquee they actually wanted to see.

"Romantic comedy about two people working for rival companies," Yuuko said, pointing out the titles on the list.

Yuki hesitated. "Maybe that would be good... what are the other ones?"

"Legal drama about pollution?"

"I don't think that would be very fun."

"Movie about birds. Movie about gorillas. Giant lizards. Yakuza. Evil psychic sex cults." Yuuko shrugged. "I don't know, what do you want to see?"

"I don't—" Yuki blinked and leaned forward to wave. "Oh, Kaoru! Kitagawa!"

Yuuko turned to look. Misaka Kaoru was walking into the theatre with a small wave, and Kitagawa Junri trailed after like a stubborn pet. They approached the two at Yuki's greeting.

"Aizawa! Minase!" Junri clasped her hands together in glee. "Are you two going on a date, too?"

Kaoru shot her a look. "You and I are not going on a date, Kitagawa. Don't give them that idea. I just wanted to get away for a while, that's all."

Yuuko shook her head. Watching Junri deflate after Kaoru shot her down was getting a bit old. "Date or not, what were you guys looking to see?"

Kaoru indicated a dark poster with an eye piercing through the night sky. "_The Eye of Terror_. Apparently, it just came out or something."

"_The Eye of Terror_...?" Yuki gave a confused smile. "If you're going, then why don't we watch the same movie?"

"Isn't that the one people say you have to sign heart attack waivers to see?" Yuuko asked with a grin.

"I wanted to talk to you anyway, Yuki," Kaoru said. "If you'll excuse us..."

The boys apologetically stepped over to the popcorn flavouring island. Junri grabbed Yuuko by the arm and tugged her a few steps into the opposite direction.

"I'm glad to see you and all, Aizawa," Junri whispered, "but try not to get in the way of our date."

"Some date," Yuuko said with a roll of her eyes. "He just blatantly said he wanted to get out of the house."

Junri crossed her arms. "He's playing hard to get! Have you ever seen a TV drama in your life?"

"Have you ever seen _reality _in your life?" Yuuko muttered. "Besides, _The Eye of Terror_? I didn't peg you for a horror fan."

"I'm not, really. That's the point!" Junri clasped her hands together and brightened up. "It was in my magazine! 'Fifty Perfect Date Ideas Sure to Make Him Yours,' the article said. You're supposed to ask the guy you like to a scary movie, especially if you can't handle them. It gives you an excuse to cling on!"

Yuuko raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't call it a perfect date if you're purposely going to something you don't want to watch."

"Don't tell me you wouldn't do it," Junri said.

"No, I wouldn't, because that sounds stupid." Yuuko paused and smirked. "Although maybe I'd _take_ someone who didn't like scary things to a horror movie. That'd just be hilarious."

"Aizawa, you're scaring me."

Yuuko sighed. "Same to you. Weren't there any better ideas in your magazine?"

Junri looked left and right, making sure Kaoru wasn't listening. Sure enough, he was still deep in conversation with Yuki over by the popcorn flavouring island.

"I've tried most of them," she confessed. "I walk to and from school with him whenever I can. I carry his things and offer to do him favours so he'll remember I'm there. I've made him lunch a couple of times, but he usually just eats the school lunches. I even ran for student council and got elected after he was elected class rep so we could spend more time together and so that I could ask the council about what would make him happy!"

"You could have just asked Yuki," Yuuko said with a shrug. "They've been friends for who knows how long. Or I don't know, ask another friend or a family member."

Junri deflated. "I don't know Minase well enough to ask him questions, and I bet the first-years would get the wrong idea anyway, and how am I supposed to get Kaoru's attention when everybody thinks I like some other guy? And as for family, he's an only child. I asked him two months ago."

Yuuko sighed. "Okay, okay."

She looked over toward Yuki where he was talking to Kaoru and raised her voice.

"Hey, Yuki, are we going to see their movie?"

* * *

As it turned out, none of the party had to sign liability waivers, but most of the theatre was shaking and staying very close to the lights when the movie let out. Even Kaoru, keeping his composure, was white-knuckled on the railing walking out.

"Well!" Yuuko gave a wide grin. "How was that?"

Yuki shivered. "Maybe we should have seen the gorilla movie."

"I'll have to agree." Kaoru frowned. "We did kill a few hours, though, at least."

"Please don't use the word 'kill' right now," Junri whimpered.

Yuuko gave a shrug and a smirk. "What are you guys talking about? That was entertaining!"

Junri made a face at her. "Entertaining for you! All you did was laugh when I screamed or hid under my coat!"

"Didn't I tell you? That's the most entertaining part of any scary movie."

Junri shuddered and sulked. She thought for a moment and brightened. "Hey, guys! I'm thinking of getting a new phone. Like, my own cell phone! I've been saving up and everything. I want that new kind that flips open and has a camera in it!"

Kaoru frowned. "Are you kidding? Don't. The only people who'd actually use those are those perverts who blackmail girls or take pictures over the stall door."

"No way!" Junri waved her arms. "That's just the newspapers making a big deal out of nothing. Even if a pervert used one, they've got security features like a sound that goes off when they take a picture, so..."

"A friend of ours mentioned that it was a good idea," Yuuko said. "Technology moves pretty fast. This stuff will end up standard one day or another."

Kaoru walked a little faster and pushed the outside door open. "Forget it. Cameras in phones will never catch on."

Junri paused before following him out the door.

* * *

The four parted into twos again, and Yuuko walked with Yuki down the streets of the shopping district. Affected or not by the scary movie, they were definitely walking very close together very quickly and staying in the light, they were definitely searching for conversation topics that had nothing to do with serial killers or dismemberment, and they definitely both screamed, waved their arms, and slipped on the ice when something came flying out of the alley popping and sparking.

"Hahahahaha!" Makoto ran out of the alley pointing and laughing. "I finally got you, Aizawa Yuuko!"

"Makoto," Yuuko growled, climbing to her feet. "What's your problem? You scared Yuki!"

Yuki pulled himself up and held onto a nearby street lamp. "Makoto-san again…?"

"It's a small price to pay for finally getting past the first stage of my revenge!" Makoto pointed in Yuuko's face. "After you foiled me so many times, I finally scared you!"

"Yeah, with an unfair advantage," Yuuko grumbled. She knelt to pick up the charred remains of the fireworks Makoto had lit, got up, and threw them back in his face. "Seriously, you need to stop this."

"Yeah, right!" Makoto crossed his arms. "Your ugly face is reason enough even if I can't remember my grudge!"

Yuuko stepped towards him and lowered her voice. "Okay. Let's say maybe I have a reason now to believe your story. Even so, you can't remember what I did, and I can't remember what I did either, so right now we're both lost."

Makoto blinked. "What reason do you have now?"

"Do you know your last name yet?" Yuuko asked.

"No, I…" Makoto held her head and thought. "I… think it's Sa…wa... Sawatari. It's Sawatari!"

Yuuko didn't say anything for a moment. Then she grinned and stepped to the side. "See, I'm helping you already. Come on, Yuki. Hey, Makoto, clean up your mess or you'll get a ticket for littering." She walked off with Yuki in tow, tuning out Makoto's rants as they exited.

Yuki hesitated and looked at her. "Is it really okay, Yuuko?"

"Which?" Yuuko asked.

"Is it okay to keep seeing Makoto-san and Iori-san?"

"Makoto might be a nuisance, and I wouldn't want to live with him or anything, but he seems harmless so far," Yuuko said. "At least Iori's civil, and that's more than we can say for his friend."

Yuki sighed. "You're right, Yuuko. I don't want to hurt anyone, and I know they need people with them right now…"

Yuuko nodded. "You're a nice person, Yuki. You really feel for lonely people, don't you?"

Yuki didn't say anything.

* * *

"Ayumu Ayumu!"

It was another dream with Yuuko as a child. Winter again. Yuuko ran down the sidewalk, dodging patches of ice, towards the train station. It looked much the same as it had in the present, or a week removed from the present, when Yuki had picked Yuuko up once she'd sat there long enough to be covered in a layer of snow. Ayumu wasn't covered in snow when Yuuko caught sight of him, but he was still sitting on the bench with a shiver. She frowned when she ran up to him and he climbed off the bench.

"Sorry I'm late," Yuuko said. "I was a little busy."

Ayumu looked at the ground. "I'm not Ayumu Ayumu."

"Right, that's your fake name that you use to blend in with the humans." Yuuko frowned when Ayumu's face fell further. "Relax, I'm joking! What's your real name?"

"Tsukimiya Ayumu," he said.

"Oh," Yuuko said, underwhelmed.

"What's wrong?"

"I expected something less normal," she confessed. "Something like… 'AyumuMAX!' Or 'Ayumu, the mysterious being who descends from the sky to protect dreams and love!'"

Ayumu shifted. "Uguu… That wouldn't fit on my birth certificate."

"I'm joking." She patted his head. "Should we get going, Ayumu Ayumu?"

Ayumu stood behind as Yuuko started walking away. "Uguu…"

"Come on, Ayumu, don't get left behind," she called. Satisfied, he followed.

They had only met the day before, when Yuuko saw Ayumu crying and tried to cheer him up by asking if he was an alien. She knew he wasn't, of course. When she had taken him away from the forming crowd, she'd asked him why he was so upset.

"Uguu…" He hiccupped. "My dad's gone. And my mom's always busy now. There are always strangers at my house talking about my dad's things, and phone calls and letters and bad food." Sniffle. "And now I'm lost."

"Don't worry," she had said, stupid as it sounded – of course he had to worry. "I'll talk to you. Are you hungry?"

That had brought them to the same place they were headed to today: a food stand in the shopping district with a wooden sign hanging down. _Taiyaki, 100 yen each_.

Ayumu took a small, nervous bite and slowly ate. He gave a little smile. "It tastes better today."

Yuuko grinned knowingly. "That's because you're not crying. When you're sad, it makes everything else seem worse." She took a large bite.

Ayumu nodded slightly. He hesitated. "Yuuko-chan…?"

"Wha ish it?" Yuuko asked with her mouth full. Ayumu tilted his head, and she swallowed. "What is it? Secret love confession?"

"No! Gross!" He shook his head vigorously.

"Then what?" Yuuko looked over at him.

"…Thank you," Ayumu said.

Yuuko blushed, coughed, and looked to the side.

Ayumu continued. "Yesterday, when I said my dad was gone, I meant _gone_." He inclined his head to the clouds. "I'm alone. …That's all."

He looked down at the taiyaki in his hands. Yuuko sat there and looked at him; they were silent for a few moments. Finally, Yuuko took a small breath.

"Let's see each other again tomorrow!"

Ayumu's head snapped up. He looked at Yuuko. She nodded emphatically.

"We don't just have to eat taiyaki. We can do that, and we can do other stuff! We could build a fort, or play on the playground at the school, or explore the forest even if we're not allowed! What do you like to do?"

Ayumu thought for a while, looking into Yuuko's sincere face before speaking. "Climb trees…"

"I'm no good at that, but we can do that, sure!" She took another bite of taiyaki and ate it before she kept talking this time. "We can do all kinds of stuff, so think of some more things. I'm going to be here for the whole winter vacation, so we have lots of time!"

Slowly, Ayumu smiled. He let go of his taiyaki with one hand and offered out his pinky. "Promise?"

Yuuko blinked. "We're not five, you know. Do we have to pinky swear?"

"Uguu…" Ayumu quivered. "Yes."

"Okay, fine," Yuuko said. She reached her right hand out, paused, and pulled it back, switching hands and linking fingers using her left. "There. Meet at the station tomorrow, it's a promise."

They shook. "Promise!"

* * *

Monday was a rush-out-the-door kind of day. Not only did Yuki sleep through the cacophony of alarm clocks until Yuuko had to shake him out of bed, Akio offered him the yellow jam again and Yuki dramatically lunged to drag Yuuko out the door without a boxed lunch.

"What on earth is wrong with that concoction, anyway?" she asked as they ran down the sidewalk towards the school. "Sure, it looks a little weird, but if Akio-san made it, it can't be that bad."

"You really don't want to know." Yuki shuddered.

"That just makes me more curious," Yuuko said. She raised an eyebrow at a figure down the street. "Hey, is that—hey, Ayumu! Hey!"

Ayumu paused and ran over to them. "Yuuko-chan and Yuki-kun! Are you going to school?"

"Yuuko-chan?" Yuuko raised her eyebrow. "You've just been calling me 'Yuuko' for days."

"Sorry, Yuuko," Ayumu said, rubbing the back of his head. "I guess it was an old habit."

"We are going to school," Yuki said. "What about you? What school do you go to?"

"It's up on the hill there," Ayumu said. He pointed, though it was hard to tell with his mitten on. "It's okay if I'm late, though, so I can talk!"

"Unfortunately, our school isn't nearly as slack," Yuuko said. "We can talk after school, though, okay?"

"Really?" Ayumu asked. "Yuki-kun too?"

"I have track practice," Yuki said. "Sorry! But another time."

"I can meet you at the train station, like we used to," Yuuko said. "Is that okay?"

Ayumu nodded. "Of course! I'll see you! Have fun at school today!"

He waved them off with a smile. Yuuko and Yuki continued their walk down the slope.

"You've been remembering a lot, Yuuko, haven't you?" Yuki asked.

"Maybe," she said. "Just little things, though. You guys have been helping a lot. Thanks."

"It's nothing." Yuki looked down the road and waved. "Kitagawa-san!"

Junri walked over to them and waved. "Hi, guys! It's good to see you. Kaoru went ahead early today."

"Are you feeling better, Kitagawa?" Yuuko asked.

"A little," she said with a smile. "Kaoru didn't mean to be rude or anything, he just doesn't understand. I have people who do understand, like Iori! Maybe Kaoru will get it later."

"Iori, huh?" Yuuko studied her face.

Junri nodded cluelessly. "I hope he feels well enough to come eat lunch with us today."

"Why does he keep coming to school and just stand around if he isn't well enough to go to class? That's what I want to know," Yuuko said.

"It must be to support his mysterious image!" Junri clapped. "…But I'll ask him at lunch just to make sure."

Yuuko sighed. "I'll never understand you."

Yuki nervously sped up.

* * *

"I'm free for lunch today," Kaoru said once the lunch bell rang. "Let's go to the cafeteria, all right?"

"That sounds good," Yuki said. "I was just going to ask you. What about you, Yuuko?"

"Sure," Yuuko said. "We didn't pack lunches anyway."

"I'm really, sorry, but I can't!" Junri blushed. "I promise I'll make it up to you, Kaoru! I just said I'd eat with somebody else… Sorry!" She dashed out of the room.

Kaoru gave a small sigh. "I was going to ask her to carry my things..."

Yuki laughed a little. "That's a mean joke, Kaoru."

Yuuko stood up from her seat and looked at him. "For a guy who seems to think she's a pain, you sure like making her do your errands."

"It is what it is," Kaoru said. He turned away as Yuuko grimaced.

They got up to leave and Kaoru looked out the window. He paused, frowned, and quickly walked out. "Come on."

"What's his problem today?" Yuuko looked out the window. There was nothing particularly off, just a few students sitting in the courtyard. Junri, Iori, and Makoto were crowded around some magazine or another on one of the benches. Yuuko shook her head and followed after Kaoru.

"Yuuko, wait!"

Yuki ran after her and grabbed her sleeve. She stopped.

"What's going on?"

Yuki pulled her aside into a staircase. He lowered his voice to a whisper.

"I've been wondering for a while, and especially since I talked to Kaoru before our movie yesterday. I… I'm sure now that this is the same Iori."

"Iori?" Yuuko put a hand on her hip. "What does Iori have to do with this?"

Yuki paused and looked around for other people. Finding none, he continued.

"I think Iori might be Kaoru's younger brother."

* * *

Mahiro sat at the top of the stairs on the unfolded picnic mat, waiting for Satoru. He unfolded a small note in his lunch box.

_You might want to watch out for the person I mentioned earlier. I know this doesn't have much to do with your problem right now, but trust me when I say that everything's connected. Even if that makes me sound like a crazy person. Either way, being a student, you're in a much better position to monitor this than I am._

_Be careful with the demons tonight. I might not be there, so you don't have to worry about meeting up. You've handled this for a long time, and I've never been a fighter. Not that kind, anyway._

_I'll keep you informed._  
_(This sounds stupid.)_

_T. F._


	7. Determined

_Dream... I'm having a dream._

_It hurts, and everything is blurry and red. Someone is crying. I want to say it's okay, convince them that the pain is going away. It's not really going away, though. It's only numbing. But that person, that child is crying. I want to make things better. Can't I?_

_I feel like I've had this dream before._

* * *

"You're kidding me," Yuuko said.

Yuki shook his head. His voice went quiet. "Kaoru had a younger brother and they used to be close. He told me once that they were always waiting to be able to go to the same school, even if his brother was always sick. At the beginning of the school year, he said that Iori came to school, but... then he stopped talking about him in public. I suppose Iori-san wasn't able to go to school past the first day."

Yuuko stared. "But Kaoru's an only child. Kitagawa said so, and with how obsessed she is, you'd think she wouldn't get that detail wrong."

"Kaoru wouldn't tell her," Yuki said. He looked around nervously. "I don't want to say much, since it's Kaoru's problem. Just... don't ask him about it. He trusted me not to tell anybody."

Yuuko hesitated. "So you're telling me because you don't want me to talk about Iori in front of him? If he's just going to deny it..."

Yuki looked down. "I don't know what else to do, Yuuko."

"I don't like this." Yuuko paused and gave a sigh. "...All right. We'll catch up with Kaoru and not say anything right now." She offered a hand to Yuki.

Yuki jumped. His face turned pink. "Yuuko!?"

Yuuko withdrew her hand. "What's going on? Yuki, you're acting as weird as Kaoru is."

Yuki tugged on a piece of his hair and looked off awkwardly. "I guess so."

* * *

Iori sat on the brick border of the courtyard's centrepiece flower bed with a closed sketchbook in his arms. Makoto perched on one side of him and Junri on the other, talking.

"And then I got laughed at the whole way through the movie!" Junri deflated. "He didn't even stick up for me after, and when I tried to change the subject to getting a new phone, he basically told me there was no point. I'm never going to impress him at this rate."

Makoto stuffed his face with a meat bun. "This guy sounds like a pain. Why do you even want to go out with him?"

Junri pouted. "He's not bad! You're just jealous, that's all. Kaoru's going to notice me for more than carrying his stuff even if I have to set fireworks off in front of his house!" She paused. "Although I guess I'd have to look up where he lives in the phone book first."

Iori turned his head to her. "You've mentioned this Kaoru before, haven't you?"

"Yeah," she said. "He's been busy lately, so he hasn't been eating with us. Oh, I should have asked him to come with me today..."

"All guys named Kaoru are pains," Makoto said, taking another bite. "Probably."

"That's not even fair," Junri grumbled. "You probably only know one or two."

"Just my brother," Iori interjected. He lifted a pill bottle from his bag, twisted open the bottle, and shook out a small pill. He popped it into his mouth and took a sip of the tea in the thermos at his side.

"Are you still sick?" Junri frowned.

"This cold hasn't gone away yet." Iori closed the bottle and slipped it back into his bag. Junri caught sight of a large assortment of similar bottles, all with different labels and pills inside. Iori set his lunch aside and stood up.

"Where are you going?"

"Just to the vending machine," he assured. "I remember what you like, so I'll get you each something, too, don't worry. It'll just be a minute."

He walked down the courtyard, slowing only slightly until he turned the corner of the school. Once out of sight of the others, Iori collapsed to the ground.

"Ngh! –nn…" He breathed in hard and pushed down on the snow pack, his arms shaking until they buckled and he dropped down again. He struggled to slowly breathe in and out with shivers. Footsteps crunched the crisp snow and stopped in front of him.

"Here."

Iori turned his head as much as he could. There was a woman crouching in front of him, holding out her work-gloved hand. He reached up to take it and let her help him to his feet.

She let go once he was standing firmly enough. "Are you okay to walk?"

"I think so," Iori managed. He rubbed his eyes and looked his aider over. He wasn't sure how old she was, but she was wearing some kind of maintenance uniform – repairs? Electricity? – and her hair looked like it hadn't been properly cut in a while. She looked at him and shook her head.

"You don't have to pretend it's a cold," she said.

Iori froze, trembling there. He fought to say something and managed a cough. "Excuse me," he finally said, and bowed before running off to the vending machine.

The woman shook her head and walked away.

* * *

After lunch, everybody gathered at their seats. Yuuko, Kaoru, and Yuki all looked away from each other, awkward and solemn. Junri blinked a few times at the three of them.

"Something happen?" she asked.

"Nothing, really," Yuki said. "It's just been a normal day."

"It doesn't look like any of you had a good lunch break, though. Was the food bad or something? It's usually not..."

"It's nothing." Kaoru cut Junri off without even looking at her.

In fact, 'not looking at Junri' became his norm for the day, even more so than usual. He shut his mouth when she tried to talk to him before class. He ignored her stewing sulk as literature class went on. When the math teacher came in and instructed the students to open up their books, Junri leaned over and whispered.

"Kaoru!"

No response. She poked him with her pencil eraser.

"Kaoru, I don't get the problems on the board. Can you help?"

In response, Kaoru simply raised his hand.

"Yes, Misaka-kun?" The teacher raised an eyebrow.

"Kitagawa is trying to distract me," Kaoru said.

Junri jumped in her seat. "That's not fair, Kaoru! I was asking you for—"

The teacher looked at her. She shrank back into her place.

It was no better at the end of the day. The second the bell rang, Kaoru stood up, slipped his things into his bag, and started walking out of the room.

"Kaoru!" Junri waved and ran after him with her bag. "Kaoru, wait up! Don't you want to go somewhere today?"

Kaoru didn't even look at her. "Stop it."

Junri stopped cold. "W-what...?"

Yuuko grabbed her own things and stormed over to where they stood outside the door. "Seriously, Kaoru! You're being even colder to Kitagawa than usual. She doesn't deserve this."

"It's none of your business." He turned on his heel to face them. Yuki hesitated in the room and ran over out the door to them, hanging back a bit, while everybody else in the class filed out past them.

Junri quivered in her place. "Really, Kaoru, if I've done something to upset you, I'll make it up to you! I'll buy you a drink again! Carry your bags! I'll take you to a movie that won't scar either of us for life! What did I do?"

"Stop that," Kaoru said. He took in a deep breath and narrowed his eyes. The four of them stayed silent for a moment until Kaoru spoke up again, his gaze locked on Junri.

"The person you've been talking to at lunch every day," he said. Yuuko was about to open her mouth, but Yuki caught her sleeve. Kaoru continued. "The first-year. Since you're speaking so often... Do you care about him?"

Without even waiting for an answer, he walked away and down the stairs.

Junri stared. She barely registered Yuuko rushing to her side and trying to shake her to her senses, or Yuki fretting at the back.

"Kitagawa! Kitagawa!" Yuuko called. She stopped shaking her and watched her blink back.

"What did I do?" Junri asked in a fog. "Did I... Oh, no. Kaoru! Kaoru thinks I'm leaving him for Iori!" She pulled Yuuko's hands off her shoulders. "I have to catch him and explain!"

"Wait up, Kitagawa!" Yuuko raised her voice. "Do you really think he's going to listen? For that matter, do you really think it's about you 'leaving him'?"

"Yuuko..." Yuki wrung his hands and gave a weak warning look.

Junri stepped into the light of the lowering sun from the hall window. "What else could it be? You heard him. He thinks I'm in love with Iori instead of him, so he's mad! I need to set things straight with him and it'll all be fine!"

"Kitagawa!"

"I'm going to get the phone book!" Junri pushed past Yuuko and ran down the stairs toward the school pay phone.

Yuuko deflated with a sigh. "Well, that went well."

Yuki shook his head. "I had a feeling that something like this might happen. Poor Kaoru... Kitagawa-san doesn't deserve all of that, but I can't blame Kaoru, either."

"That's because you're a saint," Yuuko said. Her gaze moved from the staircase the others had run down to the clock on the wall. She paused.

"I forgot!"

* * *

When Yuuko finally got to the train station, Ayumu was right where he promised he'd be. Yuuko stumbled to a stop in front of the bench, panting and gasping cold fog.

"Sorry I'm late," she breathed. "Stuff happened."

Ayumu shook his head and swung up to his feet. "That's okay. You were only a little bit late. What happened?"

"Let's just say I'm having disagreements with classmates." She groaned and started walking with him. "Mostly because they're having disagreements with each other over stupid complexes and stupider misunderstandings."

Ayumu frowned with his mitten to his face. "Did you talk to them?"

"I tried. That's why I was late." Yuuko sighed. "It's one of those things where you're... let's say heavily encouraged to shut up about and hope it will go away. I've never been good at that."

Ayumu hesitated. "That's a good thing, Yuuko."

"Not everybody thinks so." Yuuko looked up at the sky. It was starting to snow.

"Uguu..." Ayumu looked down the street. "Hey! It's that person from Saturday!"

Yuuko looked where he was gesturing. Makoto was waving his arms in frustration at the crane machine in front of an arcade, while Iori shook his head and smiled even as the claw dropped the box it had grabbed.

"Auuu! The machine's cheating!" Makoto huffed. He turned around and glared at the approaching duo. "And what are you looking at?"

"Nice to see you, too." Yuuko sighed and walked over with Ayumu. "Iori, this is Tsukimiya Ayumu. Ayumu, Iori. He's the other half of the Mystery Guy Brigade."

Iori laughed a little at that. "Hello to both of you."

Ayumu bowed. "Nice to meet you."

"Hey! Why are you just ignoring me!?" Makoto growled.

Yuuko gave a shrug. "Ayumu's already met you, though. 'Saruwatari Makoto', right?"

"It's Sawatari!" He pointed in her face. "You're getting it wrong on purpose! And after I just remembered it yesterday, too!"

"Oh? I must have remembered wrong. Sorry, monkey boy."

"I am not a monkey boy! I'm nothing like a monkey at all! Auu!"

"Ah, both of you?" Iori pointed to the district's shoppers gathering and whispering a safe distance away. "People are staring."

Groan. "Okay, fine," Yuuko said. "Sorry, Makoto. You guys deserve to have some fun, too."

"I'll agree with that," Makoto grumbled.

"Oh, hey." Yuuko dug into her pocket, brushing her fingers against the folded note from the previous week, and pulled out a photo strip. "While you're here, I've been meaning to give this back to you. It's yours, after all." She offered it out with a smile.

"The pictures from the other day," Ayumu helpfully added.

Makoto yanked the photo strip out of Yuuko's hands. Iori looked over his shoulder at it; in the first two photos, an unsure Makoto shared the space with a smiling Ayumu, Yuuko dove into the picture in the third, and Makoto was screaming and making a face in the fourth. He couldn't help but laugh some. Makoto immediately crumpled the photo strip and stuffed it in his pocket.

"Rub it in, why don't you," he sniped. "Fine! Just go back to your stupid haunted school. Let's go home, Iori." Makoto walked off down the sidewalk.

Iori bowed. "Sorry about that. I know you two don't get along." He followed after his friend, who waited ahead for him before fuming down a side street.

"Uguu..." Ayumu watched after them.

"That didn't go well either," Yuuko sighed. "Maybe I do need to be easier on him. Even if he does like to make my life miserable."

Ayumu looked up at her. "Your school really isn't haunted, right?"

Yuuko shook her head. "Don't worry. I have absolutely no idea what he's talking about."

* * *

"That was a little harsh, Makoto." Iori opened up the gate in front of the Misaka house and pushed it through the gathering snow.

"It was her fault," Makoto fumed.

"Partially," Iori conceded. "Do you remember why you're angry at her yet?"

Makoto thought and shook his head. "I can't give this up, though. There's nothing else I can do, Iori."

Iori let Makoto in and closed the gate with a small sigh. "Maybe I'm just thinking too much."

They opened the door and exchanged their boots for inside slippers. As Iori shut the house door behind them, he caught sight of someone. He turned to see Kaoru walk sharply away as soon as their eyes met.

"Kaoru?"

Iori followed the older boy into the kitchen, and Makoto trailed after. Kaoru walked more quickly to the refrigerator.

He tried again. "Hi, Kaoru. I didn't see you today..."

Kaoru said nothing. He shut the refrigerator door without taking anything out and stood there.

"He's not going to say anything, Iori," Makoto said. "Come on, let's go someplace else."

Iori shook his head and stayed. "Kaoru? How was your day?" He paused. "Kaoru—"

Kaoru finally whirled at him with a growl. "Can't you take a hint!?"

Iori stumbled back and put a hand to his heart.

"Auu!" Makoto jumped a little, too. "What's your problem?"

"Kaoru, won't you at least listen?"

Kaoru's eyes steeled. "To what?"

"We used to be close," Iori said. "But after the first day of school, and when the doctor told Mom and Dad how long I—"

"Stop it."

Makoto scurried behind the pantry and watched with a tremble. The doorbell rang. Kaoru almost went and got it, but Iori grabbed his sleeve. The older brother shook the younger off. Makoto gulped and darted toward the door to answer the bell.

"Why?" Iori asked.

"Why?" Kaoru repeated. "It's bad enough that I have to see you hovering outside the school every day and pretend you're not there!"

"I was waiting for you..." Iori coughed out.

Kaoru ignored it. "Now you're taking over the house, harbouring some bum who doesn't go to school, showing up everywhere, and stealing my friends?"

Iori winced. Kaoru breathed in and shut out his heart with harsh eyes.

"I don't care if your life has less than a month left! Just get your hands off of mine!"

Iori's eyes went wide, his pupils shrank, and he had to grab onto the counter to support his shaking legs. Kaoru's face went shadowed and he said nothing. The footsteps neither of them heard stopped, followed by a thud. Both of them jumped. Makoto was back at the kitchen door, standing with a white-faced Junri, who stared in shock with her school bag dropped at her feet.

Kaoru bolted out of the room, down the hall to get his boots, and through the house door. He barely registered that it was snowing and he didn't have his coat on. He just flung open the front gate and ran as far as he could, down the residential roads.

* * *

Yuuko parted with Ayumu and started the walk home. She shivered and pulled her jacket closer around her. She turned a corner and stumbled back, barely dodging her running classmate.

"Is that…" Yuuko looked over. "Kaoru! What are you doing?"

"I don't need whatever you're going to say right now!" Kaoru shoved by her and didn't slow down.

Yuuko took this in for a second. Her fingernails sunk into the skin of her palm.

_Enough is enough_, she thought. He was already a good ways down the street, but she started to run after him.

Kaoru kept moving. It might have been autopilot that sent him running down the hill toward the school. He ran breathing hard, blinking the snowflakes out of his eyes, until he couldn't run anymore and stopped, panting in front of the school gate.

What was that?

He stood up and looked ahead. That red-haired first-year was standing at the other end of the block. He rubbed his eyes, and Amano was gone. Kaoru held his head.

"Too much," he whispered. "Too much."

The sun was already almost down. He shook his head and slipped into the school courtyard. For a good moment, he stood there, just breathing and shuddering in the snow.

Kaoru jumped at the sound of footsteps crushing snow around the corner of the school and quickly ducked behind a large tree for cover. He looked out and saw a figure come out heralded by a flashlight. Sigh of relief. The night watch, of course. Kaoru hid and watched as the person walked through the falling snow and locked up the school gate, then moved past his hiding spot and around the building.

And then it hit him with a bite of cold wind just what he'd gotten into. Misaka Kaoru was generally, under normal circumstances, a logical sort, and usually not the type to run without purpose through the town and end up locked inside the school's gates, hiding from the night watch while it was supposed to be checking for that what's-his-name senior who kept breaking the windows, and without a coat while it was snowing.

He didn't know why he'd done it. Aside from the pressing need to avoid freezing to death, as well as maybe his brain being numbed from the cold into continuing to make bad decisions, he wasn't sure why his eyes lay upon the slight dip in the freshly-falling snow, either. It made a path, which Kaoru was pretty sure was trampled solid underneath the fluffy new coat, straight to a windowsill with a flat piece of metal lying under it and a window that was slightly ajar.

Maybe he'd make it after all.

It was getting harder to follow Kaoru once he got out of sight, but the footprints weren't completely filled in. Yuuko stumble-ran down the street, trying not to slip and gasping for breath while cursing the ice on the pavement. She made it, panting, to the school gate and grabbed the iron bars for support, then just as quickly let go and pulled away from the icy metal. Her eyes followed Kaoru's fading footprints past the shut and locked gate.

"Oh, no." She groaned.

The silence of the school answered her. Almost unconsciously, she dug into her pocket and brought out the folded paper she'd only remembered she still had after touching it at the arcade. Her shivering hands took a few tries to unfold it and bring it under a streetlamp's light.

_Watch the people around you.__  
__Take care for them.__  
__The more happiness you bring to others,__  
__the more you will have in return._

Yuuko stuffed it back in her pocket.

"I'm probably going to regret this later..."

She took a deep breath, looked between the grates for the night watch, and scaled the gate.


End file.
